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Division  BX  G  2-  3 
Section  .V4i  Z 


THE   BAPTISTS 


^4h 


The  Story  of  the  Churches 


The  Baptists 


v<By 
HENRY  C.  VEDDER,  D.  D. 

Professor  of  Church  History  in  Crozer  Theological 
Seminary 


HEVf  YORK:  THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO. 
33-37  East  Seventeenth  St.,  Union  Sq.  North 


Copyright,   1902, 

By 

The  Baker  &  Taylor  Co. 

Published,  February,  igoj 


The  aim  of  this  series  is  to  furnish  a  uniform 
set  of  church  histories,  brief  but  complete, 
and  designed  to  instruct  the  average  church 
member  in  the  origin,  development,  and  his- 
tory of  the  various  denominations.  Many 
church  histories  have  been  issued  for  all  de- 
nominations, but  they  have  usually  been 
volumes  of  such  size  as  to  discourage  any 
but  students  of  church  history.  Each  vol- 
ume of  this  series,  all  of  which  will  be 
written  by  leading  historians  of  the  various 
denominations,  will  not  only  interest  the 
members  of  the  denomination  about  which 
it  is  written,  but  will  prove  interesting  to 
members  of  other  denominations  as  well 
who  wish  to  learn  something  of  their  fellow 
workers.  The  volumes  will  be  bound  uni- 
formly, and  when  the  series  is  complete  will 
make  a  most  valuable  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian church. 


Contents 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.    Who  and  What  are  the  Baptists  ?  .    .     7 

II.    The  Histoeical  Antecedents  of  the 

Baptists 24 

III.  The  Beginnings  of  Baptist  Chueches  .   66 

IV.  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  her 

Dependencies 100 

V.    Baptist  Beginnings  in  America    .   .   .  135 

VI.    Baptists  in  the  United  States  ....  162 

VII.    Baptist  Missions 208 


The  Baptists 

CHAPTER  I 

WHO   AND  WHAT   ARE   THE   BAPTISTS? 

Knowledge  of  the  Baptists,  even  among 
well-informed  people,  is  often  confined  to  a 
single  fact — they  are  a  religious  body  that 
practice  immersion.  This  is,  to  be  sure,  ac- 
curate knowledge  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it 
goes  a  very  little  way.  It  does  not  serve  to 
distinguish  Baptists  from  many  other  de- 
nominations. Not  a  few  persons  will  hear 
with  surprise  that  there  are  in  the  United 
States,  besides  the  Baptists,  at  least  ten  re- 
ligious bodies — some  of  them  quite  numer- 
ous— that  uniformly  practice  immersion,  and 
three  others  that  practice  it  frequently. 
While  it  is  true  that  the  administration  of 
7 


8  The  Baptists 

this  rite  has  been  the  most  striking  charac- 
teristic of  Baptists,  from  the  time  that  they 
appeared  as  a  separate  people,  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  they  have  from  the 
first  held  a  distinctive  group  of  doctrines. 
To  understand  these  is  a  necessary  prelimi- 
nary to  a  comprehension  of  their  history. 
The  cardinal,  the  fundamental  principle  of 

I  Baptists  is  loyal  obedience  to  Jesus  Christ. 
This  they  conceive  to  be  the  essence  of 
Christianity.  To  be  a  Christian  is  not  to 
have  had  a  certain  "experience,"  not  to  be- 
lieve a  certain  creed,  not  to  perform  a  pre- 
scribed round  of  rites  and  observances,  but 
to  obey  Christ,  "if  ye  love  me,  keep  my 
commandments."  Baptists  therefore  de- 
cline to  recognize  the  distinctions  some- 
times made  between  "essentials"  and 
"non-essentials"  among  Christ's  com- 
mands. They  hold  every  command  to  be 
essential,  in  the  place  and  for  the  purpose 
commanded.     And  they  deny  the  right  of 

V    any  human  authority  to  abrogate  or  alter 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  9 

any  command  that  Christ  gave  to  his  dis- 
ciples to  be  observed  for  all  time. 

Because  of  the  authority  thus  recognized 
in  Jesus  Christ,  Baptists  receive  the  Scrip- 
tures— the  written  word  of  Christ — as  the 
sole  and  sufficient  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 
No  special  theory  of  inspiration  has  accept- 
ance among  them;  they  are  committed  to 
no  views  of  the  authorship  and  dates  of  the 
various  books,  and  are  free  to  accept  the 
ultimate  conclusions  of  sound  scholarship. 
Their  thought  has  never  been  better  put  than 
in  the  Philadelphia  Confession — which  is 
practically  identical  with  the  confession  of 
the  English  Baptist  Assembly  of  1689,  which 
again  is  the  Westminster  Confession  slightly 
revised:  "The  whole  counsel  of  God,  con- 
cerning all  things  necessary  for  his  own 
glory,  man's  salvation,  faith  and  life,  is  either 
expressly  set  down  or  necessarily  contained 
in  the  holy  Scripture;  unto  which  nothing 
at  any  time  is  to  be  added,  whether  by  a 
new  revelation  of  the  Spirit,  or  traditions  of 


10  The  Baptists 

men."  All  creeds,  all  writings  of  the 
Fathers,  all  decisions  of  councils,  are  the 
opinions  of  fallible  men,  which  must  stand 
or  fall  as  they  agree  with  the  Scriptures. 
The  only  authority  to  interpret  these 
writings  is  the  Spirit  of  God,  promised  to 
every  believer  that  asks  for  his  enlightening. 
It  is  not  merely  the  privilege,  it  is  the  duty, 
of  every  Christian  to  interpret  the  Scriptures 
for  himself;  no  one  can  relieve  him  from 
this  responsibility,  none  should  be  suffered 
to  rob  him  of  this  right. 

Because  they  accept  the  Scriptures  as  an 
authoritative  guide,  Baptists  hold  that  a 
church  of  Christ  consists  of  those,  and  of 
those  only,  who  have  been  baptized  upon  a 
credible  profession  of  faith,  and  walk  con- 
sistently in  accord  with  such  profession. 
They  find  no  warrant,  express  or  implied, 
in  the  New  Testament  for  the  baptism  of 
infants.  There  is  confessedly  no  command 
to  baptize  infants.  Candid  scholars,  not 
Baptists,  admit  that  there  is  no  clear  case  of 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  u 

infant  baptism  in  apostolic  times.  But  more 
than  this:  Baptists  hold  that  the  baptism 
of  any  but  believers  is  contrary  to  the  whole 
spirit  of  Christianity,  and  that  it  totally  sub- 
verts the  principle  on  which  the  Church  of 
Christ  was  founded.  Judaism  had  been 
based  upon  natural  descent,  upon  the  law 
of  the  flesh,  but  Jesus  came  to  teach  and  es- 
tablish the  utterly  new  law  of  the  spirit. 
"  Except  a  man  be  born  from  above,  he  can- 
not see  the  kingdom  of  God.  .  .  .  That 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  that  which 
is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit."  To  be  a 
Christian  is  to  enter  into  a  new  and  spiritual 
relation  to  God,  through  faith  in  his 
Son. 

This  is  to  exalt  the  spiritual  above  the 
fleshly  in  Christ's  Church,  to  put  reality  above 
form.  It  marks  the  sharp  break  between 
the  religion  of  Christ  and  all  other  religions. 
In  every  other  religion  one  has  certain  rights 
because  of  natural  birth — the  Jew,  for  ex- 
ample, was  a  Jew  because  he  was  a  lineal 


12  The  Baptists 

descendant  of  Abraham.  But  no  man  is  a 
Christian  because  his  parents  were  Chris- 
tians, he  can  be  a  Christian  only  if  he  has 
been  spiritually  born  into  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Religion  thus  becomes,  according  to 
Christ's  teaching,  a  matter  between  each 
human  soul  and  God.  There  is  no  need  of 
priestly  mediation,  there  is  no  possibility  of 
regeneration  by  a  magical  "sacrament." 
To  baptize  one  who  has  not  believed  is,  in 
the  eye  of  a  Baptist,  an  empty  form,  but  as 
the  act  of  one  who  sees  in  it  more  than  that, 
it  is  something  worse:  it  is  an  impertinent 
interference  with  the  personal  rights  of 
another  soul,  it  is  to  nullify  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

Because  they  accept  the  Scriptures  and 
not  tradition  as  authority.  Baptists  practice 
immersion  only  as  baptism.  No  candid 
scholarship  to-day  professes  to  find  any- 
thing but  immersion  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, or  in  the  practice  of  the  Church  for 
centuries.     One  great  branch  of  the  Catho- 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  13 

lie  Church — the  Greek — to  this  day  recog- 
nizes no  other  practice.  The  old  polemic 
literature  of  baptism  is  out  of  date  and  use- 
less, and  this  is  equally  true  of  both  sides 
of  the  controversy.  Those  who  do  not 
practice  immersion  have  shifted  their 
ground.  They  no  longer  deny,  they  rather 
frankly  admit,  that  immersion  was  the 
apostolic  practice  and  long  continued  to  be 
the  general,  if  not  the  universal,  rule  of  the 
Church.  But,  they  plead,  "other  times, 
other  manners."  Christianity  is  a  spiritual 
religion,  and  its  followers  are  not  in  bond- 
age to  a  rite,  however  ancient  and  ex- 
pressive. In  the  wise  exercise  of  discretion, 
the  Church  has  seen  fit  to  change  the 
ancient  form  to  one  more  suited  to  modern 
ideas,  dress,  customs.  It  is  a  triumph  of 
good  sense  over  narrow  literalism!  Bap- 
tists have  found  themselves  unable  to  ac- 
quiesce in  such  a  triumph;  they  hold  fast 
to  the  command  of  Christ  and  the  example 
of  his  apostles. 


14  The  Baptists 

For  a  like  reason,  Baptists  teach  that  the 
second  Christian  rite,  the  Lord's  supper  or 
eucharist,  was  instituted  for  the  followers 
of  Christ  alone,  that  is,  those  who  have  be- 
lieved in  him  and  confessed  their  faith  in 
baptism.  The  New  Testament  writings 
make  this  mutual  relation  plain,  in  regard- 
ing baptism  as  the  beginning  of  the  new 
life  in  Christ,  the  symbol  of  regeneration, 
while  the  supper  is  the  symbol  of  the  union 
of  the  believer  with  Christ,  and  the  sus- 
tentation  of  the  new  life  in  him.  This 
teaching  of  the  Scriptures  is  so  plain,  so 
perfectly  unmistakable,  that  for  fifteen  cen- 
turies, among  all  the  vagaries  of  the  swarm- 
ing heretical  sects,  none  ever  proposed  that 
the  unbaptized  should  be  admitted  to  the 
eucharist.  It  was  reserved  for  Faustus 
Socinus  first  to  teach  that  baptism  is  not 
necessary  to  Christian  discipleship,  that 
men  may  enter  the  church  of  Christ  and 
enjoy  all  its  privileges  without  baptism,  but 
are  under  obligation  to  observe  the  eucharist. 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  15 

Even  at  the  present  day,  however,  no  de- 
nomination in  its  official  standards  author- 
izes the  invitation  of  the  unbaptized  to  the 
table  of  the  Lord.  What  is  known  as 
"open  "  communion  is  the  attempt — some- 
times deliberate,  but  more  often  uncon- 
scious— to  set  aside,  for  considerations  of 
sentiment,  the  historical  consensus  of  Chris- 
tendom as  to  the  teaching  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament upon  this  rite. 

In  the  matter  of  church  polity.  Baptists 
also  attempt  to  take  the  New  Testament  as 
their  guide,  and  to  follow  the  simplicity  of 
apostolic  times.  In  the  apostolic  period, 
the  believers  of  any  locality  formed  an  as- 
sembly or  church.  There  were  no  officers 
in  these  churches,  except  elders  or  bishops, 
and  deacons.  Each  church  enjoyed  an  ab- 
solute autonomy,  and  no  external  authority 
existed.  In  cases  of  need,  a  church  called 
on  others  for  help,  and  the  other  churches 
recognized  their  obligation  to  render  aid. 
In  doubt  and  difficulty  a  church  asked  ad- 


i6  The  Baptists 

vice,  and  the  other  churches  acknowledged 
their  duty  to  give  counsel.  All  believers, 
in  every  place  and  in  all  time,  are  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  constituting  one  assembly  or 
church;  but  this  is  an  ideal,  not  an  actual 
body.  The  idea  of  one  universal  visible 
Church,  with  local  branches  here  and  there, 
is  a  conception  foreign  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  gradual  evolution  of  the  second 
and  third  centuries.  So  Baptists  understand 
the  Scriptures  and  history,  and  they  shape 
their  polity  accordingly. 

Because  the  religion  of  Christ  is  a  strictly 
personal  matter — a  transaction  between  the 
soul  and  God,  into  which  no  third  party  can 
enter — Baptists  hold  that  a  State  Church  is 
an  absurdity,  as  well  as  an  intolerable 
wrong.  God  himself,  by  giving  man  free- 
dom of  choice,  has  put  it  beyond  the  scope 
of  omnipotence  to  coerce  men  into  his  king- 
dom. Why  should  man  attempt  what  is 
beyond  the  power  of  God?  Absurdity 
could  no  further  go.     Nor  can  any  wrong 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  17 

be  more  intolerable  than  interference  with 
that  most  sacred  of  all  rights,  the  right  of 
each  man  to  decide  for  himself  what  shall 
be  his  relation  to  God.  To  worship  God 
according  to  one's  own  conscience,  rather 
than  according  to  another's,  is  the  right 
men  are  least  willing  to  surrender.  But  an 
established  religion,  a  State  Church,  is  a  flat 
denial  of  that  right.  It  cannot  be  anything 
else.  True,  under  a  State  Church  there 
may  be  toleration  of  all  sects,  but  by  what 
principle  does  one  man  "tolerate"  another 
in  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  that  which 
is  the  equal  right  of  both  ?  He  who  toler- 
ates, because  that  is  expedient,  in  so  doing 
silently  asserts  the  right  to  persecute,  if  that 
shall  become  expedient.  For  a  long  time 
Baptists  were  the  only  religious  body  to 
recognize  these  truths,  to  stand  fast  for 
equal  religious  liberty  as  the  heritage  of  all 
men,  and  therefore  to  agitate  for  complete 
separation  between  Church  and  State.  All 
America  has  come  to  agree  with  them,  and 


l8  The  Baptists 

the  whole  world  is  moving  toward  the 
same  goal. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  Baptists 
came  to  hold  just  these  doctrines  and  no 
others  by  no  mere  accident.  These  prin- 
ciples are  a  logical  whole,  necessary  corol- 
laries of  the  fundamental  tenet  of  loyalty  to 
Christ  and  obedience  to  his  word.  Not 
one  of  them  is  superfluous,  nor  is  it  easy  to 
suggest  an  addition.  These  are  the  prin- 
ciples that  Baptists  came  into  existence  to 
maintain;  it  is  these  principles  that  justify 
their  continued  existence.  They  are  vitally 
important,  and  they  are  held  and  con- 
sistently enforced  in  practice  by  no  other 
body. 

When  Baptists  came  into  existence  as  a 
separate  people  has  been  a  hotly  debated 
question.  The  answer  depends  mainly  on 
the  definition  of  the  name.  If  by  Baptist  is 
meant  a  people  called  by  that  title,  and  hold- 
ing in  all  important  respects  just  the  doc- 
trines held  by  Baptist  churches  to-day,  then 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  19 

it  is  vain  to  seek  for  such  before  the  seven- 
teenth century.  But  if  by  Baptist  were 
meant  any  mediaeval  sect  that  agreed  with 
present-day  Baptists  in  the  fundamental 
matter  of  baptizing  believers  only,  while 
practicing  that  form  of  baptism  in  common 
use  about  them  (affusion),  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  carry  the  history  of  Baptists  back  to 
the  twelfth  century,  perhaps  earlier  still. 
No  little  confusion  and  dispute  has  been 
caused  by  this  looser  use  of  the  name,  and 
in  this  book  it  has  seemed  best  therefore  to 
confine  the  name  to  its  well-established  his- 
toric sense,  as  describing  an  offshoot  of  the 
English  Separatists,  who  first  achieved  an  in- 
dependent existence  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  adopted  the  exclusive  practice  of 
immersion,  and  in  consequence  received  the 
name  Baptists  about  1644. 

The  earliest  historians  of  the  Baptists  had 
learned  the  facts  about  the  origin  of  their 
denomination,  and  set  them  forth  properly. 
Later  writers,  who  had  made  little  or  no  in- 


20  The  Baptists 

vestigation,  and  had  not  even  read  the 
earlier  historians  carefully,  inspired  by  de- 
nominational pride  and  anxious  to  make 
good  a  claim  of  Baptists  to  antiquity,  at- 
tempted to  carry  back  the  history  to  the 
earliest  Christian  times.  It  is  now  an  article 
of  faith, among  the  Baptists  of  a  certain  large 
region  of  the  United  States,  that  there  have 
been  churches  of  their  order  from  the  days 
of  the  apostles  until  now^,  and  woe  to  him 
who  denies  a  dogma  none  the  less  binding 
because  it  is  unwritten.  The  holders  of 
this  new  theory  rely  less  on  historic  evi- 
dence than  on  exegesis  for  proof — which  is 
wise,  for  facts  are  lacking,  but  exegesis  is 
easily  supplied.  For  example:  Christ  said 
that  the  gates  of  Hades  should  not  prevail 
against  his  Church;  but  the  churches  of  the 
New  Testament  times  are  such  as  Baptist 
churches  are  to-day,  and  no  others;  hence, 
if  there  had  ever  been  a  time  when  Baptist 
churches  did  not  exist,  the  gates  of  Hades 
would  have  prevailed  and  Christ's  promise 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  21 

would  have  lacked  fulfilment.  But  that  is 
unthinkable  by  a  Christian — heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass  away,  but  not  the  word 
of  Christ — hence  there  must  always  have 
been  Baptist  churches  in  existence. — 
Q.  E.  D. 

This  method  of  treating  Baptist  history  is 
not  only  recent  and  provincial,  but  is  op- 
posed to  the  fundamental  conception  of  the 
older  writers.  They  attached  no  such  im- 
portance to  the  proof  of  antiquity.  They 
appealed  for  justification  of  teaching  and 
practice,  not  to  any  traceable  outward  de- 
scent from  the  apostles,  but  to  actual  cor- 
respondence with  the  New  Testament — the 
only  kind  of  apostolic  succession  they  es- 
teemed worth  having.  They  also  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  if  antiquity  be  made  the 
test  of  truth,  Rome  has  the  judgment  in  her 
favor  rendered  in  advance.  On  every 
account,  therefore,  they  forebore  factitious 
and  ridiculous  claims  to  an  ancient  origin, 
and,   though   often  taunted  with   being  a 


22  The  Baptists 

people  of  yesterday,  they  contented  them- 
selves with  replying  that  their  principles 
were  the  oldest  form  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

All  students  of  history  are  to-day  trained 
in  the  rigorous  application  of  the  scientific 
method.  And  what  the  ordinary  lay  reader 
wishes  to  know  of  any  religious  body  is, 
What  are  the  well  ascertained  facts  ? — facts 
established  by  documents  of  indubitable 
genuineness,  facts  witnessed  by  competent 
contemporary  observers.  To  answer  this 
question  candidly  and  succinctly,  so  far  as 
it  relates  to  the  Baptists,  is  the  object  of  the 
succeeding  pages.  It  will  there  be  shown 
that  a  succession  of  principles,  like  those 
held  by  the  Baptist  churches  of  to-day,  may 
be  easily  traced  from  the  twelfth  century 
onward  to  our  own  times.  The  tracing  of 
these  principles  is  a  necessary  and  legitimate 
part  of  the  history,  for  though  Baptists  are 
of  late  origin,  they  did  not  spring  out  of  the 
ground   and  invent  de  novo  the  type  of 


Who  the  Baptists  Are  23 

doctrine  and  practice  associated  with  their 
name.  Their  roots  go  back  many  cen- 
turies before  their  definite  origin  and  formal 
organization. 


CHAPTER  11 

THE  HISTORICAL  ANTECEDENTS  OF  THE  BAPTISTS 

The  immediate  spiritual  ancestors  of  the 
Baptists  were  the  Mennonites,  whose  name 
was  derived  from  a  Roman  Catholic  priest, 
Menno  Simons,  who  left  the  Roman 
Church  about  the  year  1536  and  became 
an  independent  evangelistic  teacher.  He 
had  been  led  to  this  course,  in  part  by  per- 
sistent doubts  concerning  the  teachings  of 
the  Church,  but  still  more  by  his  long  and 
careful  study  of  the  Scriptures,  in  which  he 
finally  became  well  versed.  He  did  not 
originate  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the 
sect  that  came  to  bear  his  name,  nor  did  he 
found  the  sect,  but  as  the  most  prominent 
of  its  leaders  he  came  in  time  to  hold 
a    place   not   less   influential   than   that  of 

founder.     He  at  least  refounded  the  body, 
24 


Historical  Antecedents  25 

drawing  together  a  scattered  and  disorgan- 
ized people,  and  winning  thousands  of  new 
converts. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Mennon- 
ites  was  that  the  Scriptures  alone  are  to  be 
received  as  authority,  and  for  Christian 
practice  only  the  New  Testament  is  authori- 
tative. It  was  plain  to  them  that  the  Scrip- 
tures teach  the  baptism  of  believers  only, 
and  contain  no  warrant,  whether  of  precept 
or  example,  for  the  baptism  of  infants.  It 
did  not  appear  equally  plain  to  them  that 
baptism  is  immersion  only,  and  for  the 
most  part  they  have  always  been  content 
with  practicing  that  form  of  baptism  in 
vogue  about  them.  To  this  rule  there  have 
been  a  few  exceptions.  A  congregation  at 
Rhynsburg  introduced  the  practice  of  im- 
mersion in  1619,  and  a  branch  of  the  Men- 
nonites  that  settled  in  Russia  also  became 
immersionists.  The  great  majority,  how- 
ever, are  affusionists  to  this  day, 

A  curious  people,  in  many  ways,  were 


26  The  Baptists 

these  followers  of  Menno.  A  tendency  to 
over-literal  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures 
early  manifested  itself  among  them,  and  led 
to  the  adoption  of  some  practices  that  later 
became  distinguishing  features  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  George  Fox.  They  forbade  all 
oaths,  even  judicial  oaths,  and  refused  to 
bear  arms,  even  in  self-defence.  They  en- 
forced plainness  of  dress  and  general  non- 
conformity to  worldly  customs,  and  in 
their  church  discipline  they  supervised  the 
details  of  business,  family  and  personal 
conduct  to  a  degree  that  most  folk  would 
reckon  tyrannous  as  well  as  inquisitorial. 
That,  notwithstanding  these  peculiarities, 
they  were  a  mild,  peace-loving,  law-abi- 
ding, industrious,  virtuous  people,  is  the  re- 
luctant yet  admiring  testimony  of  their 
bitterest  foes  and  persecutors. 

These  virtues,  and  the  simplicity  of  their 
teaching,  won  favor  for  the  Mennonites 
through  a  large  part  of  the  Continent  of 
Europe.     Throughout    Holland,    Denmark, 


Historical  Antecedents  27 

Germany  and  Western  Russia,  Menno  and 
his  fellow-missionaries  went,  amid  con- 
stant privations  and  dangers,  preaching  the 
gospel  and  everywhere  baptizing  converts. 
Only  the  most  stringent  measures  of  re- 
pression kept  the  sect  from  making  rapid 
growth  in  every  place.  In  Holland,  where 
alone  they  enjoyed  a  fair  measure  of  tolera- 
tion, they  did  increase  to  the  number  of 
many  thousands.  But  for  the  most  part, 
their  history  is  to  be  traced  by  the  records 
of  bloody  martyrdoms,  with  which  the 
archives  of  those  times  abound.  Many  of 
these  records  have  been  recovered  and  pub- 
lished, and  the  result  is  a  story  of  patient 
endurance  of  wrong,  of  heroic  perseverance 
in  the  face  of  certain  anguish  and  death, 
such  as  may  indeed  be  paralleled  but  can- 
not be  surpassed  in  all  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

From  time  to  time,  companies  of  these 
Mennonites  found  their  way  to  England. 
We  find  traces  of  them  early  in  the  reign  of 


28  The  Baptists 

Henry  VIII,  and  these  continue  throughout 
the  Tudor  dynasty.  The  sect  may  be 
traced  by  the  royal  proclamations  in  which 
their  errors  were  denounced,  and  by  the 
records  of  their  arrest  and  punishment.  It 
was  the  policy  at  times  of  the  Tudor  mon- 
archs  to  encourage  immigration  from  Hol- 
land, for  the  building  up  of  certain  English 
manufactures;  and  such  immigrants,  dwell- 
ing in  certain  specified  towns,  were  per- 
mitted to  enjoy  their  own  religious  cus- 
toms, with  little  or  no  molestation.  With 
these  exceptions,  Mennonites  who  came  to 
England  were  likely  to  find  that  they  had 
gone  further  and  fared  worse. 

In  England,  these  people  were  seldom  or 
never  called  Mennonites,  but  Anabaptists. 
They  remained,  to  all  appearance,  a  sepa- 
rate people,  not  making  any  considerable 
impression  on  the  English.  We  know  from 
the  official  records  that  some  men  and 
women  of  English  birth  joined  the  sect,  but 
there   is   no   trustworthy  account  of  Ana- 


Historical  Antecedents  29 

baptist  churches  composed  of  Enghshmen 
during  this  period.  Of  the  individual  Eng- 
lish Anabaptists  known  to  us,  the  most 
noteworthy  is  Joan  Boucher,  or  Joan  of  Kent, 
who  was  burned  for  heresy  in  1550,  the 
story  of  whose  martyrdom  is  known  to  all 
readers  of  Fox's  "  Book  of  Martyrs."  The 
last  man  to  suffer  at  the  stake  in  England, 
Edward  Wightman,  who  was  burned  in 
161 1,  was  also  an  Anabaptist.  At  least,  the 
two  chief  errors  alleged  against  him  were 
denial  of  the  Trinity,  and  of  the  baptism  of 
infants.  The  first  tenet  was  by  no  means 
characteristic  of  Anabaptists,  but  was  held 
by  a  few  who  had  been  influenced  by  the 
writings  of  Socinus.  Between  Joan  of  Kent 
and  Wightman  many  witnessed  to  the  truth 
with  their  lives,  to  say  nothing  of  those 
still  larger  numbers  that  suffered  the  minor 
penalties  of  fines  and  imprisonment,  whip- 
pings and  banishment.  But  even  though 
these  Anabaptists,  speaking  a  foreign 
tongue  and  dwelling  clannishly  by  them- 


30  The  Baptists 

selves,  did  not  make  converts  of  English- 
men on  any  great  scale,  and  apparently  left 
no  English  churches  of  their  order,  their  so- 
journ in  England  was  not  without  effect 
upon  that  country.  They  certainly  did 
something  toward  preparing  the  soil,  and 
to  some  extent  they  sowed  the  seed,  for  the 
later  growth  of  English  Baptists. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  Menno  did 
not  originate  the  sect  that  took  his  name. 
There  were  Mennonites  before  Menno,  but 
they  had  been  called  Anabaptists.  He 
found  ready  to  his  hand,  though  disorgan- 
ized and  scattered,  a  people  already  holding 
and  practicing  what  he  had  by  his  studies 
discovered  to  be  the  teaching  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. Indeed,  we  are  told  that  it  was  the 
constancy  of  one  of  their  number  when 
persecuted  for  his  faith,  even  to  the  death, 
which  had  been  one  of  the  chief  means  of 
opening  his  own  eyes  and  promoting  his 
complete  enlightenment.  It  was  after  he 
had  become  a  preacher  of  the  truth  that  the 


Historical  Antecedents  31 

Anabaptists  rallied  under  his  leadership,  and 
under  the  new  name  renewed  their  exist- 
ence, which  had  been  threatened  with  ex- 
tinction. For  these  Anabaptists  were  the 
most  hated  and  despised  and  bitterly  per- 
secuted folk  of  the  Reformation  period, 
with  what  reason  the  reader  shall  judge 
when  he  has  read  their  history  and  teach- 
ings. 

The  Anabaptists  appear  in  the  early  years 
of  the  Reformation,  almost  simultaneously 
in  both  Germany  and  Switzerland — appear 
with  a  suddenness,  and  in  so  many  places 
at  once,  as  to  compel  the  conclusion  that 
they  too  (like  the  Mennonites)  were  not 
then  and  there  originated,  but  are  the  reap- 
pearance of  an  older  party  under  a  new 
name.  One  difficulty  in  studying  their  his- 
tory is  due  to  the  fact  that  contemporary 
writers  used  the  name  "  Anabaptist "  very 
loosely,  it  having  become  a  term  of  con- 
tumely, and  as  such  was  applied  to  persons 
to  whom   it  did   not  properly  belong — to 


32  The  Baptists 

anybody  whom  the  dominant  rehgious 
party  esteemed  dangerous  heretics  or  pesti- 
lent fellows. 

The  Anabaptists  do  not  appear  as  a  sepa- 
rate party  in  the  first  stages  of  tiie  Refor- 
mation, but  this  is  sufficiently  explained  by 
the  fact  that  the  reformers  at  first  professed 
strictly  evangelical  and  radical  ideals  and 
purposes.  The  refusal  of  Luther,  particu- 
larly from  the  Leipzig  disputation  of  the 
summer  of  15 19,  to  accept  anything  but  the 
Scriptures  as  authority  in  either  faith  or 
practice,  was  all  that  the  most  radical 
evangelical  asked  or  desired.  He  only  de- 
manded the  faithful,  the  consistent  applica- 
tion of  this  principle  to  all  questions,  as  they 
arose  in  turn  and  demanded  solution. 
Zwingli  also,  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  reform  at  Zurich  —  long  before  the 
citizens  were  aware  that  the  reform  had 
begun,  in  fact — had  avowed  the  same  prin- 
ciple again  and  again,  in  the  strongest  pos- 
sible words.     Both   reformers  spoke  most 


Historical  Antecedents  33 

explicitly  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual conscience,  the  universal  priesthood 
of  believers,  the  duty  of  each  Christian  to 
interpret  the  Scriptures  for  himself,  and 
Luther  at  least  had  denounced  the  wicked- 
ness of  persecution  for  the  sake  of  religion. 
Here  v^as  doctrine  as  radical  as  the  Anabap- 
tists ever  proclaimed.  How  were  those 
who  really  held  these  as  cardinal  beliefs  to 
know  that  the  reformers  only  half  held 
them — held  them  only  in  the  strictly  modi- 
fied sense,  that  nobody  else  was  to  go  fur- 
ther and  faster  than  they  in  the  practical 
application  of  these  principles  ?  As  the  real 
meaning  of  the  reformers  became  clear,  the 
Anabaptists  stood  forth  as  a  separate  party. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the  reform  in 
Switzerland.  In  the  first  public  disputation 
at  Zurich  (January  29,  1523),  which  marks 
the  formal  beginning  of  the  reform  move- 
ment, the  council  ordered  that  the  dis- 
putants should  "  use  the  holy  divine  word 
in  the  German  tongue  and  speech,"  and 


34  The  Baptists 

promised  that  the  decision  should  be  "ac- 
cording to  what  shall  prove  itself  to  be  con- 
sonant with  Holy  Scripture  and  truth." 
Throughout  the  discussion  Zwingli  refused, 
with  the  approval  of  the  council  and  his 
auditors,  to  listen  to  any  argument  not 
founded  on  the  Scriptures.  Although  his 
chief  opponent,  Faber,  was  very  anxious  to 
quote  Fathers  and  councils  against  Zwingli's 
doctrines,  he  could  not  oppose  them  by  the 
text  of  Scripture;  and  the  council  therefore 
decided  that  Zwingli  had  won  the  victory, 
and  ordered  him  to  go  on  proclaiming  the 
pure  gospel.  The  people  of  Zurich  gener- 
ally approved  this  decision — there  were  no 
dissidents  save  those  inclined  still  to  adhere 
to  the  Roman  Church. 

Already  the  question  had  been  raised  in 
Zurich  whether  the  Scriptures  justified  the 
baptism  of  infants.  Zwingli,  Oekolampa- 
dius,  and  others  prominent  among  the 
reformers,  recognized  that  no  direct  com- 
mand or  clear  precedent  can  be  cited  from 


Historical  Antecedents  35 

the  New  Testament  for  this  traditional 
practice,  and  they  were  much  inchned  at 
first  to  give  up  a  custom  so  ill  supported. 
But  before  they  had  fully  decided  on  their 
course,  difficulties  arose.  The  radical  group 
at  Zurich  insisted  not  merely  on  the  sur- 
render of  infant  baptism,  but  on  the  total 
reorganization  of  the  church,  in  accord  with 
the  New  Testament.  There  we  find,  said 
they,  churches  consisting  only  of  believers, 
those  who  have  not  only  made  a  sincere 
and  credible  profession  of  faith  in  Christ, 
but  attest  the  profession  to  be  true  by  a 
godly  life. 

This  was  an  altogether  different  ideal 
from  that  cherished  by  Zwingli,  who  was  a 
patriot  as  well  as  a  Christian,  not  more 
preacher  than  he  was  politician.  He  did  not 
believe  it  possible  thus  to  separate  the  Church 
from  the  world,  and  it  appeared  to  him  sui- 
cidal to  enter  on  a  policy  that,  if  successful, 
would  certainly  lose  the  reformers  the  sup- 
port of  the  Zurich  council.     Reform,  not  by 


36  The  Baptists 

the  power  of  the  truth  alone,  but  by  the 
authority  of  the  government;  a  Church,  not 
composed  of  the  regenerate  only,  but  of 
all  the  community  who  were  not  openly 
vicious  and  irreligious;  a  Church,  not  de- 
pending on  voluntary  gifts  for  its  support, 
but  supported  by  the  State,  and  in  some 
measure  therefore  controlled  by  the  State; 
in  short,  a  reform  not  purely  religious,  but 
in  part  political — this  was  the  ideal  of 
Zwingli  and  most  of  his  coworkers. 

Nor  should  it  surprise  us  that  they  were 
not  ready  to  accept  the  programme  of  the 
radicals.  That  was  vague  and  not  a  little 
alarming,  theirs  was  precise,  definite  and 
safe.  There  had  been  no  demonstration  as 
yet  of  the  possibility  of  a  Church  dissociated 
from  State  support  and  State  control.  Vol- 
untaryism seemed  a  frightful  risk  to  a  clergy 
accustomed  to  draw  sure  stipends  from  a 
well-filled  treasury;  it  seemed  a  frightful 
certainty  of  disorder,  heresy  and  trouble  to 
the  politician,  accustomed  to  the  legal  regu- 


Historical  Antecedents  37 

lation  of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  And  there- 
fore, when  it  became  clear  to  the  reformers 
that  there  was  a  close  and  necessary  con- 
nection between  a  State  Church  and  infant 
baptism,  Zwingli  and  the  majority  of  his 
coworkers  reconsidered  the  question,  and 
without  much  difficulty  found  arguments 
from  the  Scriptures  for  the  retention  of 
infant  baptism. 

The  radicals,  however,  not  only  held  fast 
to  their  contention,  but  followed  out  the 
logic  of  their  convictions.  If  they  were 
right  in  maintaining  that  infant  baptism 
was  not  warranted  by  the  Scriptures,  that 
it  was  therefore  a  void  and  meaningless 
form,  what  followed?  Why,  that  they 
had  never  been  baptized  at  all,  and  the 
command  of  Christ  had  not  been  obeyed 
by  them.  Obviously,  if  the  only  real  bap- 
tism was  a  baptism  of  a  believer,  on  his 
own  confession  of  faith  in  Christ,  it  was 
their  duty  to  confess  him  and  be  baptized 
at  once.     Early  in   1525  such  baptisms  on 


38  The  Baptists 

confession  began  among  them,  and  in  a 
short  time  all  the  radicals  had  submitted  to 
this  new  baptism.  The  method  employed 
in  these  first  cases  was  affusion — it  is  dis- 
tinctly recorded  that  persons  were  baptized 
from  a  basin  or  bowl.  Later,  in  some 
cases,  immersion  was  practiced;  but  while 
this  method  was  more  and  more  used,  it 
seems  never  to  have  become  an  exclusive 
practice,  as  it  did  later  in  England.  Nor 
did  it  become  a  cause  of  division  or  dispute. 
It  was  because  this  group  of  radical  re- 
formers thus  insisted  on  administering  bap- 
tism, by  whatever  method,  to  adults  who 
had  (as  all  others  believed)  been  baptized  in 
infancy,  that  their  opponents  began  to  call 
them  Anabaptists,  or  Wiedertauffer,  both  of 
which  mean  r^-baptizers.  And  it  was  be- 
cause this  act  challenged  not  only  the 
validity  of  their  opponents'  baptism,  but 
the  validity  of  their  whole  church  order — 
in  effect  declaring  the  State  Church  to  be  no 
church — that  severe  measures  of  repression 


Historical  Antecedents  39 

were  immediately  undertaken.  The  Ana- 
baptist hencefortii  was  held  to  be  not 
merely  a  heretic,  but  a  rebel;  he  not  only 
set  up  a  practice  different  from  that  which 
satisfied  others,  but  he  questioned  the  au- 
thority of  the  council,  and  declared  its 
measures  wrong.  It  is  not  altogether  won- 
derful that  the  Zurich  authorities  found  this 
intolerable. 

The  leaders  of  the  Anabaptists  in  Zurich 
were  a  group  of  men  well  worthy  to  be 
compared  with  Zwingli  himself.  They 
were  such  men  as  Conrad  Grebel,  son  of  a 
Zurich  councillor,  educated  at  the  Univer- 
sities of  Vienna  and  Paris,  greatly  esteemed 
for  his  ability  and  learning;  Felix  Mantz, 
the  natural  son  of  a  Zurich  canon,  also 
liberally  educated  and  a  fine  Hebrew 
scholar,  which  Zwingli  was  not;  George 
Blaurock,  a  former  monk,  less  famed  for 
learning  than  for  eloquence,  in  which  he 
was  unsurpassed;  Ludwig  Hiitzer,  from 
the  canton  of  St.  Gall,  educated  at  Freiburg, 


40  The  Baptists 

also  an  eminent  Hebrew  scholar.  These 
men  were  fully  the  equals  of  Zwingli  in 
learning  and  eloquence,  some  of  them  were 
his  superiors  in  social  position,  but  the 
chief  preacher  of  Zurich  and  the  trusted  ad- 
viser of  the  council  was  stronger  than  all  of 
them.  Public  disputations  were  appointed 
by  the  council  for  the  discussion  of  the 
points  at  issue,  and  were  duly  held,  but  the 
result  was,  under  the  circumstances,  a  fore- 
gone conclusion — no  matter  what  the  rela- 
tive skill  of  the  disputants,  or  the  strength 
of  the  various  arguments  adduced,  the  de- 
cision of  the  council  was  certain  to  be  in 
Zwingli's  favor.  And  such  a  decision 
having  been  rendered,  it  was  equally  cer- 
tain that  the  council  would,  that  the  council 
must,  proceed  to  enforce  it  upon  the  de- 
feated party.  With  the  ideas  prevalent  in 
that  age,  religious  liberty,  toleration  even  of 
opponents,  was  not  to  be  thought  of  by  the 
powerful  or  looked  for  by  the  weak.  Re- 
pression   by   heavy   penalties,   in  the    last 


Historical  Antecedents  41 

resort  by  death  itself,  was  the  policy  imme- 
diately pursued  by  the  council. 

These  penalties  were  mainly  directed 
against  the  men  prominent  as  leaders 
among  the  Anabaptists.  The  greater  part 
of  these  people,  as  of  the  Zwinglians,  were 
plain  men  and  women,  of  good  intentions 
but  of  little  education.  The  expectation  no 
doubt  was  that,  when  the  Anabaptists 
were  once  deprived  of  their  able  and  edu- 
cated leaders,  they  would  be  easily  con- 
trolled. In  Zurich,  at  least,  the  policy  was 
measurably  successful.  The  leaders  soon 
disappeared.  Several — Felix  Mantz,  Jacob 
Falk,  Henry  Riemann — were  put  to  death 
by  drowning;  others — as  George  Blaurock 
and  Ludwig  Hatzer — escaped,  only  to  meet 
a  worse  fate  elsewhere.  Perhaps  the  ablest 
of  all,  Conrad  Grebel,  died  of  the  plague. 
After  1530,  traces  of  the  Anabaptists  in 
Zurich  are  scant  and  soon  disappear  alto- 
gether. In  some  of  the  other  cantons, 
equal  success   followed  similar  measures. 


42  The  Baptists 

In  Bern,  however,  the  Anabaptists  proved 
to  be  made  of  sterner  stuff.  The  death 
penalty  was  not  inflicted  here,  but  every- 
thing short  of  this  was  tried,  with  little  or 
no  effect.  Persecutions  continued  for 
nearly  or  quite  two  centuries,  and  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  large  numbers  sought  more 
peaceful  homes  elsewhere,  the  Anabaptists 
have  survived  in  this  canton  until  this  day. 
A  conference  of  eight  churches,  and  several 
unattached  congregations  besides,  testify  to 
their  devotion  to  the  truth  and  constancy 
in  upholding  it.  One  party  of  them,  now 
known  as  the  New  Baptists,  separated  from 
the  rest  about  1830,  and  practice  immersion; 
the  rest  are,  and  seemingly  have  been  from 
the  beginning,  affusionists.  Otherwise, 
these  churches  preserve  essentially  un- 
changed their  original  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices. 

What  these  were  we  learn  from  the  con- 
fessions issued  from  time  to  time  by  little 
groups  of  Swiss  Anabaptists,  especially  one 


Historical  Antecedents  43 

adopted  at  Schleitheim  in  1527.  This 
teaches  the  baptism  of  believers  only,  the 
breaking  of  bread  by  those  alone  who  have 
been  so  baptized,  and  a  strict  discipline;  it 
forbids  Christians  to  be  magistrates,  or  to 
take  oaths  of  any  kind  or  to  bear  arms. 
Not  all  the  Swiss  Anabaptists  held  to  these 
last  tenets,  but  as  to  the  first  group  they 
were  unanimous.  None  of  the  confes- 
sions or  extant  writings  of  this  sect  de- 
clare for  any  special  form  of  administering 
baptism — while  they  differed  somewhat  on 
the  question,  it  never  seems  to  have  been 
discussed,  or  to  have  constituted  a  point  of 
difference  between  them  and  other  Chris- 
tians of  their  day. 

The  Anabaptists  of  Germany  have  a  his- 
tory less  clear  and  precise,  and  are  a  less 
homogeneous  body.  The  earliest  group  to 
be  called  by  that  name — certain  so-called 
prophets,  who  made  a  great  commotion  in 
the  city  of  Zwickau,  in  1520 — were  not, 
properly  speaking,  Anabaptists  at  all.    They 


44  The  Baptists 

probably  gained  this  name  from  their  op- 
position to  infant  baptism.  They  chal- 
lenged Melanchthon  and  other  reformers  to 
prove  infant  baptism  from  the  Scriptures, 
thereby  putting  that  excellent  scholar  to 
much  confusion.  But  from  all  we  can  learn 
of  these  "prophets"  they  rejected  external 
sacraments  altogether,  and  therefore  could 
not  be  called  Anabaptists.  They  rather 
agreed  with  the  position  taken  later  by 
George  Fox  and  the  Friends,  than  with  any 
Anabaptist  group  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
Thomas  Miinzer,  for  a  time  closely  con- 
nected with  these  "prophets"  and  often 
called  an  Anabaptist,  never  belonged  to 
that  party.  He  wrote  a  tract,  about  1523, 
in  which  he  denied  that  infant  baptism  is 
found  in  the  Scriptures,  but  his  opinion  re- 
mained a  purely  academic  and  private  no- 
tion. He  later  issued  a  liturgy  in  German, 
which  contains  a  form  for  the  baptism  of 
children,  and  he  never  abandoned  the  prac- 
tice. 


Historical  Antecedents  45 

The  true  Anabaptists  appear  in  Germany 
a  little  later  than  this,  simultaneously  in 
most  of  the  free  cities.  It  has  already  been 
explained  why  they  did  not  appear  under 
this  title  in  the  very  first  stage  of  the  Refor- 
mation. Great  obscurity  still  hangs  over 
the  early  development  of  the  sect  in  Ger- 
many, but  the  points  at  which  they  appear 
are  so  numerous  and  so  little  connection  is 
traceable  between  them,  as  to  indicate  a 
common  cause.  That  is  believed  to  be,  the 
previous  existence  in  the  same  regions  of 
Waldensian  communities,  whose  life  was 
thus  prolonged  under  the  new  name.  No 
other  hypothesis  seems  adequate  to  account 
for  all  the  facts.  But  if  this  theory  of  a 
common  origin  be  admitted  as  probable,  it 
yet  remains  true  that  there  were  several 
groups  of  Anabaptists,  differing  very  con- 
siderably in  characteristics  and  doctrines, 
and  these  must  be  separately  studied  and 
estimated. 

The   Anabaptists  of   Southern  Germany 


46  The  Baptists 

and  the  adjacent  region  of  Moravia  were  of 
the  Swiss  type.  Their  most  prominent 
leader  was  Balthazar  Hubmaier,  who,  be- 
fore the  Lutheran  Reformation  began,  was 
a  doctor  of  theology  in  the  University  of 
Ingolstadt,  and  later  a  distinguished  preacher 
at  Regensburg.  In  1520  he  became  chief 
preacher  at  Waldshut,  a  town  on  the  border 
of  Switzerland  but  within  the  domains  of 
Austria.  Here  he  formed  a  close  connec- 
tion with  the  Swiss  reformers,  and,  with 
the  full  approval  of  his  tov/nsmen,  gradu- 
ally introduced  evangelical  doctrine  and 
practice.  Further  study  of  the  Scriptures 
carried  him  beyond  the  position  of  the 
Swiss  leaders;  he  rejected  infant  baptism, 
becoming  involved  in  a  warm  controversy 
on  the  subject  with  both  Zwingli  and  Oeko- 
lampadius;  and  in  the  spring  of  1525  he 
became  an  Anabaptist,  and  rebaptized  hun- 
dreds of  the  Waldshut  people. 

The    Austrian    government    intervened, 
forcibly   restored   order  in   the  town,  and 


Historical  Antecedents  47 

Hubmaier  was  compelled  to  flee.  He 
sought  refuge  in  Zurich,  but  was  arrested, 
imprisoned  with  rigor,  and  finally  under 
torture  a  recantation  was  wrung  from  him 
— which,  however,  he  repudiated  when  he 
was  brought  into  the  church  to  read  it.  A 
second  recantation  procured  his  release,  and 
he  made  his  way  to  Nicolsburg,  in  Moravia, 
where  for  a  time  toleration  prevailed.  There 
for  two  years  he  taught  and  wrote  indefati- 
gably.  Fifteen  tracts  appeared  from  his 
pen  during  these  two  years,  some  of  con- 
siderable length,  and  were  widely  circu- 
lated. The  Anabaptists  of  Moravia  grew 
to  12,000  or  more  in  number.  Even  the 
lords  of  the  region,  the  Princes  Leonard 
and  John  Lichtenstein,  were  converted  and 
baptized.  But  Austria  now  succeeded  in 
extending  her  authority  over  Moravia,  and 
toleration  was  at  an  end.  Hubmaier  was 
arrested,  condemned  for  heresy  and  sedi- 
tion, and  burned  at  Vienna,  March  10,  1528. 
After  his  death  the  Anabaptists  of  Moravia 


48  The  Baptists 

were  gradually  suppressed  or  scattered  by 
severe  persecution. 

Among  the  Anabaptists  of  South  Ger- 
many another  name  was  even  more  potent 
for  a  time  than  Hubmaier's — that  of  John 
Denck.  Educated  at  Basel,  he  was  an  ex- 
cellent classical  and  Hebrew  scholar. 
Though  he  embraced  the  evangelical  doc- 
trines early  in  the  Reformation,  he  soon 
developed  considerable  differences  from  the 
theology  of  the  reformers,  and  thus  in- 
volved himself  in  difficulties.  He  espe- 
cially dissented  from  Luther's  teaching  on 
the  bondage  of  the  will,  and  justification  by 
faith  alone.  In  1525  he  became  acquainted 
with  Hubmaier  and  was  led  to  join  the 
Anabaptists,  among  whom  he  was  speedily 
recognized  as  a  leading  spirit.  For  some 
time  he  was  a  resident  of  Augsburg,  then  a 
strong  Anabaptist  centre.  When  com- 
pelled to  leave  here,  he  became  a  wanderer 
and  died  at  Basel  in  1527,  still  a  young 
man.     He  was  of  imposing  presence,  had  a 


Historical  Antecedents  49 

fine  voice,  and  was  much  esteemed  for  elo- 
quence, as  well  as  learning.  The  strongest 
tributes  to  his  character  and  attainments 
come  to  us  from  his  opponents.  In  the- 
ology he  was  a  mystic,  and  while  he  is  ac- 
cused of  some  heresies,  the  only  proved 
divergence  from  orthodoxy  is  his  belief  in 
the  final  restoration  of  all  men  to  holiness. 
It  is  worthy  of  record  here,  perhaps,  that 
the  Augsburg  Anabaptists  practiced  immer- 
sion in  the  river,  as  we  learn  from  the  testi- 
mony of  a  Benedictine  monk  who  lived  in 
Augsburg  at  the  time.  But  while  this  was 
the  usual  practice,  they  also  accepted  affu- 
sion as  a  sufficient  baptism  in  times  of 
persecution,  when  the  more  public  form 
was  imprudent. 

The  Anabaptists  of  central  Germany  were 
to  a  considerable  extent  drawn  into  the 
movement  known  as  the  peasant's  war. 
Many  of  them  belonged  to,  or  had  sprung 
from,  the  ranks  of  the  peasants,  and  sym- 
pathized with  their  grievances.     The  move- 


50  The  Baptists 

merit  was  religio-social,  as  the  well-known 
Twelve  Articles  of  the  peasants  testify. 
Though  Miinzer — who  became  the  leader 
of  the  peasants,  and  to  whose  blind  fanati- 
cism their  downfall  was  largely  due — was 
not  himself  an  Anabaptist,  he  shared  their 
beliefs  to  some  extent  and  obtained  much 
influence  among  them,  with  disastrous  re- 
sults to  the  body  at  large.  For  the  German 
princes,  having  put  down  the  insurrection, 
proceeded  to  severe  persecution  of  all  Ana- 
baptists in  their  domains,  having  the  plausi- 
ble excuse  that  some  of  the  sect  had  been 
engaged  in  rebellion  and  rapine. 

There  was  also  the  Strasburg  group  of 
Anabaptists.  This  became  the  centre  from 
which  were  propagated  chiliastic  doctrines 
that  culminated  in  fanaticism  and  disaster. 
The  most  influential  teacher  of  these  ideas 
was  Melchior  Hofmann,  a  man  of  little  edu- 
cation, active  mind  and  restless  spirit,  who 
was  specially  drawn  to  the  study  of  the 
prophetic  Scriptures.     He  was  at  first  iden- 


Historical  Antecedents  51 

tified  with  tiie  Lutheran  party,  but  in  1529 
he  settled  at  Strasburg  and  became  an 
Anabaptist,  quickly  putting  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  sect  in  those  parts.  He  had 
previously  predicted  the  speed}'  ending  of 
the  age,  and  he  now  became  more  definite 
in  his  predictions.  The  second  coming  of 
Christ  and  the  setting  up  of  his  kingdom  on 
earth  was  to  occur  in  the  summer  of  1533, 
and  Strasburg  itself  was  to  be  the  New 
Jerusalem,  the  capital  of  the  new  kingdom. 
In  May,  shortly  before  the  consummation 
was  due,  the  authorities  of  the  city  arrested 
Hofmann  and  threw  him  into  prison,  where 
he  remained  until  his  death  in  1543;  but 
this  persecution,  and  even  the  failure  of  the 
prediction,  did  little  to  lessen  the  fanaticism 
of  his  followers.  It  merely  took  a  dif- 
ferent course. 

New  leaders  had  to  be  found,  and  they 
were  speedily  forthcoming.  In  one  of  his 
missionary  tours,  Hofmann  had  gained  as 
an  adherent  a   baker  of    Haarlem,  named 


52  The  Baptists 

Jan  Matthys.  After  the  master's  disappear- 
ance, this  disciple  came  forward  as  a 
prophet,  the  Elijah  of  the  new  dispensation. 
Converts  multiplied,  and  at  this  juncture 
something  occurred  in  Germany  that 
seemed  to  these  misguided  people  a  provi- 
dential indication  that  the  time  had  come 
for  the  setting  up  of  the  new  kingdom. 
The  city  of  Miinster,  in  Westphalia,  had 
rebelled  against  its  prince-bishop,  and  be- 
come a  Lutheran  town.  The  leaders  of 
this  revolution  had  already  shown  symp- 
toms of  a  most  un-Lutheran  radicalism, 
when  Jan  Matthys  appeared  in  the  town 
and  began  to  proclaim  his  doctrine.  The 
city  was  won  by  his  prophetic  outgivings, 
the  people  acknowledged  him  as  leader,  and 
many  Anabaptists  flocked  in.  The  prince- 
bishop  now  raised  an  army  and  laid  siege 
to  the  town.  Matthys  was  killed  in  a 
sortie,  whereupon  John  Bockhold,  of  Ley- 
den,  announced  that  he  was  the  prophet  of 
God    and   the  successor  of  Matthys.     He 


Historical  Antecedents  53 

was  accepted  at  his  own  valuation,  and 
siiortly  afterward  proclaimed  Munster  to  be 
Mount  Zion  and  himself  King  David. 
Polygamy,  community  of  goods,  and  many 
other  absurd  and  revolting  practices  were 
introduced  by  this  new  David.  At  length, 
on  June  25,  1535,  the  city  was  taken  by  as- 
sault, aided  by  the  treachery  of  some  within 
the  gates;  many  of  the  rebels  were  put  to 
the  sword,  others  were  reserved  for  a  more 
cruel  death  by  torture. 

In  these  events  only  a  few  Anabaptists 
were  concerned.  Matthys  and  Bockhold 
had  indeed  confidently  expected  that  the 
whole  body  would  make  common  cause 
with  them,  but  the  sect  as  a  whole  were  as 
much  disgusted  by  the  excesses  at  Munster 
as  was  the  rest  of  Germany.  Nevertheless, 
the  fault  of  a  few  was  made  the  pretext  for 
unrelenting  persecution  of  all  who  bore  the 
name.  Many  thousands  of  them  perished, 
and  finally  they  disappeared  from  Germany; 
for,  if  any  remained,  they  succeeded  in  con- 


54  The  Baptists 

cealing  all  trace  of  their  existence.  The 
Protestant  princes  and  towns  must  bear, 
equally  with  the  Catholic,  the  infamy  of 
these  unjust,  inhuman  and  un-Christian  per- 
secutions of  a  people  who  were,  with  few 
exceptions,  peaceable  and  law-abiding,  ask- 
ing only  the  privilege  of  serving  God  ac- 
cording to  their  convictions  of  Scripture 
teaching. 

How  baptism  was  practiced  among  these 
Anabaptists  we  have  little  evidence.  A 
confession  issued  during  the  Munster 
troubles  distinctly  prescribes  immersion,  but 
eye-witnesses  have  left  record  that  the  form 
actually  used  in  the  city  was  affusion. 
Somewhat  later  than  this,  from  1575  on- 
ward, we  know  that  immersion  was  prac- 
ticed by  Anabaptists  in  Poland,  as  well  as 
in  the  adjoining  regions  of  Silesia,  Lithuania, 
and  Pomerania.  They  may  have  derived 
the  practice  from  Swiss  Anabaptists  who 
found  refuge  among  them — hitherto  the 
generally  accepted  hypothesis — or  from  the 


Historical  Antecedents  55 

example  of  the  Greek  Church  found 
throughout  this  region,  and  always  prac- 
ticing immersion  exclusively.  The  proba- 
bilities are  that  affusion  was  extensively 
practiced  among  the  German  Anabaptists. 
Had  the  contrary  been  the  case,  the  fact 
could  hardly  have  escaped  record. 

There  is  reason  to  believe,  as  we  have 
seen,  that  the  Anabaptists  of  the  sixteenth 
century  are  in  part  a  continuation  of  an 
earlier  evangelical  party  known  as  the  Wal- 
denses.  This  name  is  derived  from  Peter 
Waldo,  a  merchant  of  Lyons  in  the  middle 
of  the  twelfth  century.  He  became 
troubled  about  his  spiritual  state,  and  sought 
relief  from  various  priests  and  theologians, 
for  some  time  to  no  effect.  Finally  one  said 
to  him  that  the  way  of  evangelical  perfec- 
tion was  to  be  found  in  the  words  of 
Christ:  "If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go,  sell 
that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor,  and 
thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven;  and 
come,  take  up  thy  cross  and  follow  me." 


56  The  Baptists 

He  understood  the  command  literally,  and 
in  literal  obedience  his  soul  first  found  peace. 
Making  provision  for  his  family,  he  gave 
away  all  his  remaining  wealth  to  the  poor. 
Waldo  then  gave  himself  to  the  study  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  employed  two  priests  to 
translate  the  gospels  and  some  other  books 
from  the  Vulgate  into  the  language  then 
spoken  in  Southern  France.  The  gospels 
especially  he  studied,  until  he  could  repeat 
almost  the  whole  of  them ;  and  what  he  had 
learned  he  began  to  recite  to  others.  One 
circumstance  aided  him  in  this  work:  it 
was  a  favorite  diversion  of  his  countrymen 
to  listen  to  the  tales  recited  by  strolling 
minstrels,  and  they  listened  no  less  eagerly 
to  the  stories  about  Christ  taken  from  the 
gospels.  One  of  the  oldest  fragments  of 
Provencal  literature  that  has  come  down  to 
us  is  the  versified  story  of  Christ,  "The 
Noble  Lesson,"  composed  to  be  recited  in 
this  way — not  by  Waldo  himself,  but  by 
some  of  his  early  followers. 


Historical  Antecedents  57 

By  such  teaching  Waldo  made  converts, 
and  to  the  more  promising  of  these  he 
taught  the  gospel  stories,  to  be  told  by  them 
to  others.  They  all  wore  a  simple  dress, 
gave  their  goods  to  the  poor,  and  followed 
Christ  as  well  as  they  knew  how.  In  short, 
Waldo  attempted  almost  exactly  the  same 
thing  as  Francis  of  Assisi,  some  fifty  years 
later.  And  like  Francis  he  experienced  the 
distrust  and  hostility  of  the  clergy,  who,  as 
soon  as  they  became  aware  of  this  work, 
attempted  to  stop  it.  The  complaint  of  all 
the  Catholic  writers  of  the  period  against 
Waldo  is  that,  a  mere  layman,  he  had 
usurped  the  office  of  the  priesthood — with- 
out authority,  without  training,  he  presumed 
to  preach.  The  Archbishop  of  Lyons  finally 
inhibited  Waldo  and  his  followers,  and  he 
saw  his  work,  already  very  successful, 
threatened  with  ruin.  He  adopted  the  same 
expedient  that  occurred  to  St.  Francis  a  half 
century  later,  an  appeal  to  the  Pope.  But 
while   Francis,    as    we   know,    succeeded, 


58  The  Baptists 

Waldo  failed.  Pope  Alexander  III  received 
him  kindly,  and  the  third  Vatican  council, 
then  in  session,  gave  him  and  his  compan- 
ions a  hearing;  but  on  the  whole  he  was 
treated  with  that  scorn  which  those  who 
esteem  themselves  learned  and  wise  ever 
bestow  on  others  whom  they  regard  as 
pious  but  silly.  The  plea  that  he  might 
continue  his  work,  with  the  approval  and 
blessing  of  the  Church,  was  denied  Waldo, 
and  he  was  commanded  to  return  home  and 
not  to  preach  without  the  consent  of  the 
bishop.  This  meant  that  he  and  his  fol- 
lowers must  give  up  the  work  to  which 
they  felt  that  God  had  called  them,  or  to  be 
treated  as  schismatics. 

Up  to  this  time  Waldo  had  evidently  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  a  good  Catholic.  If 
there  were  any  heresy  in  his  teaching,  he 
was  totally  unaware  of  it,  and  his  appeal  to 
the  Pope  shows  his  consciousness  of  ortho- 
doxy as  well  as  his  respect  for  authority. 
That   St.    Francis   would   have  ceased   his 


Historical  Antecedents  59 

work  if  Pope  Innocent  III  had  finally  with- 
held his  approval,  we  cannot  for  a  moment 
believe.     Neither  did   Waldo   hesitate;    he 
must  obey  God  rather  than  man.     But  from 
this  time  onward  he  and  his  followers  were 
looked  upon  as  disobedient  to  the  Church, 
a  body  of  schismatics,  soon  to  be  suspected 
of  heresy  also,  and  exposed  to  the  severest 
censures  of  the  Church  so  long  as  they  re- 
mained contumacious.     Persecution  began 
at  once,  became  bitter  and  relentless,  and 
continued  long.     The  Waldenses  were  scat- 
tered and  driven  into  hiding,  especially  in 
the  inaccessible  valleys  of  the  Alps,  but  all 
efforts  to  suppress  them  failed.     They  were 
the  most  dangerous,  the   most  obstinate, 
the  most  persistent  heretics  with  whom  the 
Roman  Church  ever  had  to  deal.     On  the 
Italian  side  of  the  Alps  a  remnant  of  them 
survived  the  persecutions  of  centuries,  and 
the  Waldenses  of  Piedmont  are  to-day  an 
active  and  growing  body. 
It  is  difficult  to  state  with  exactness  the 


6o  The  Baptists 

doctrine  and  practice  of  tlie  Waidenses,  for 
they  were  not  a  homogeneous  party. 
Under  that  name,  at  different  times  and  in 
various  places,  considerable  divergencies 
are  found.  This  is  probably  due,  in  part  at 
least,  to  the  fact  that  the  name  covered  not 
only  the  immediate  followers  of  Waldo, 
but  survivals  of  preexisting  sects,  more  or 
less  evangelical,  in  Southern  France  and 
Northern  Italy,  some  of  which  will  be  pres- 
ently considered.  A  part  of  the  Waidenses 
held  quite  evangelical  views,  rejecting  in- 
fant baptism  and  sacramental  grace,  agree- 
ing almost  exactly  with  the  beliefs  held  by 
the  Anabaptists.  Another  part  retained 
much  more  of  Catholic  doctrine,  particu- 
larly belief  in  transubstantiation.  A  part 
were  congregational  in  polity,  a  part  had  an 
elaborate  system  of  teachers,  priests  and 
bishops.  Those  that  penetrated  to  Switzer- 
land and  Germany  seem  to  have  been  of 
the  more  evangelical  type,  as  we  learn  from 
Catholic  writers  of  that  region.     This  fact 


Historical  Antecedents  61 

lends  additional  plausibility  to  the  theory 
that  they  are  the  spiritual  ancestors  of  the 
Anabaptists. 

Among  the  evangelical  sects  that  pre- 
ceded the  time  of  Waldo  in  Southern 
France,  the  most  important  was  the  Petro- 
brusians.  Little  is  known  of  Peter  of 
Bruys,  the  reputed  founder  of  the  sect,  ex- 
cept that  he  began  preaching  early  in  the 
twelfth  century  and  after  some  twenty 
years'  labor  was  burned  in  1126.  That  he 
obtained  a  large  following — so  large  as 
greatly  to  alarm  the  Catholic  Church — is 
disclosed  by  the  literature  of  the  period, 
especially  by  a  treatise  of  the  Abbot  of 
Clugny,  Peter  the  Venerable,  the  friend  of 
Abelard.  We  find  from  this  account  of 
their  heresies  that  the  Petrobrusians  re- 
jected all  tradition  and  human  authority, 
accepting  the  Scriptures  as  the  only  rule  of 
faith  and  practice.  They  said  that  baptism 
ought  to  be  given  only  to  such  as  have  be- 
lieved on  Christ,  for  no  one  can  be  saved 


62  The  Baptists 

by  another's  faith;  they  denied  transubstan- 
tiation,  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  and  pray- 
ers for  the  dead;  they  affirmed  that 
churches  ought  not  to  be  built,  and  that 
crosses  should  be  pulled  down  and  des- 
troyed. These  teachings  are  essentially 
the  same  as  those  of  the  more  evangelical 
among  the  Waldenses,  and  of  the  Anabap- 
tists. 

A  contemporary  of  Peter  of  Bruys,  who 
outlived  him  and  carried  on  his  work,  was 
a  former  monk  of  Clugny,  Henry  of  Laus- 
anne. He  was  a  preacher  of  fiery  elo- 
quence, and  the  extent  of  his  following  is 
reluctantly  attested  by  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux,  in  one  of  his  letters  regarding  the  re- 
ligious condition  of  Southern  France,  where 
he  made  a  preaching  tour  in  1147.  The 
followers  of  this  teacher  were  known  for  a 
time  as  Henricians,  but  did  not  long  survive 
his  death  (about  11 50),  at  least,  under  that 
title.  The  very  rapid  spread,  a  generation 
later,  of  the  Waldenses  in  this  same  region 


Historical  Antecedents  63 

is  tolerably  good  evidence  tiiat  fragments 
of  Petrobrusians  and  Henricians  had  sur- 
vived, and  lost  their  identity  in  the  new 
party. 

Even  earlier  than  this  there  were  parties 
that  held  some,  if  not  all,  of  those  evangeli- 
cal beliefs  whose  history  we  have  thus 
traced  back  to  the  twelfth  century.  Such 
were  possibly  the  Arnoldists,  though  we 
know  too  little  of  their  origin  and  teachings 
to  speak  with  certainty.  Even  if  they  were 
followers  of  Arnold  of  Brescia,  which  is  not 
established,  we  cannot  be  sure  how  far  he 
taught  evangelical  doctrine.  The  only  clear 
thing  about  Arnold  is  that  he  taught  separa- 
tion of  the  Church  from  the  State.  There 
is  also  a  rumor  that  he  was  not  sound  con- 
cerning the  sacrament  of  the  altar  and  the 
baptism  of  infants.  If  the  rumor  were 
better  accredited,  we  might  put  Arnold 
alongside  of  his  contemporary,  Peter  of 
Bruys,  as  a  teacher  of  evangelical  truth. 
At  present  he  is  claimed  by  both  Catholics 


64  The  Baptists 

and   Protestants,  and   neither  have  a  clear 
case. 

Better  authenticated  is  the  claim  that, 
along  with  some  theological  vagaries,  the 
sect  known  as  Paulicians  taught  essentially 
those  conceptions  of  gospel  truth  that  we 
have  found  persisting  among  various  parties 
from  the  twelfth  to  the  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. The  Paulicians  originated  not  later 
than  the  seventh  century,  and  under  various 
names  are  found  in  Asia  Minor  and  Eastern 
Europe  down  to  the  Reformation  period. 
The  Bogomils  of  Bulgaria  and  the  Albi- 
genses,  of  Southern  France,  appear  to  be 
offshoots  from  this  stem.  The  Paulicians, 
according  to  their  opponents,  held  a  dualis- 
tic  or  Manichaean  theology;  and  they  rather 
denied  the  value  of  the  outward  sacra- 
ments, with  the  Friends,  than  agreed  with 
the  teaching  and  practice  of  the  evangelical 
party  of  mediaeval  times. 

Attempts  to  trace  the  history  of  these 
principles  even  further  back,  through  sects 


Historical  Antecedents  65 

like  the  Donatists  and  Montanists,  until  we 
reach  the  times  of  the  Apostles,  are  curious 
rather  than  valuable.  The  chain  of  con- 
tinuity is,  at  best,  broken  at  many  points; 
proofs  become  more  and  more  attenuated, 
and  hypothesis  must  continually  take  the 
place  of  fact.  Such  studies  have  little  or 
no  historic  value,  and  as  for  their  polemic 
use,  it  is  always  bad  tactics  to  assert  in 
controversy  what  cannot  be  clearly  proved. 
Until  research  supplies  a  larger  and  better 
authenticated  body  of  fact — if  that  day 
shall  ever  come — it  is  better  not  to  attempt 
tracing  earlier  than  the  twelfth  century  a 
continuous  history  of  the  formal  principles 
held  by  the  mediaeval  evangelical  parties. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  BEGINNINGS   OF  THE   BAPTISTS 

In  the  northwest  corner  of  Lincolnshire, 
on  the  river  Trent,  is  the  old  town  of  Gains- 
borough. Its  history  goes  back  to  the  time 
of  Knut,  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  it 
had  a  population  of  about  five  thousand. 
Ten  or  twelve  miles  to  the  northwest,  where 
the  three  counties  of  Nottingham,  York  and 
Lincoln  intersect,  is  the  village  of  Scrooby, 
then  as  now  a  hamlet  of  some  two  hundred 
souls.  The  eastern  counties  of  England — 
Kent,  Norfolk,  Lincoln — were  from  early 
times  the  hotbed  of  heretical  sects,  and  it 
was  here  that  the  first  Separatist  congrega- 
tions were  formed.  The  Separatists  were 
that  branch  of  the  Puritan  party  who  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  reformation 
of  the  Church  of   England  was  hopeless, 

66 


The  Beginnings  67 

and  that  it  was  therefore  the  duty  of  all 
who  desired  a  pure  Church  to  come  out 
from  this  body  of  corruption  and  establish 
Christ's  Church  on  a  wholly  new  founda- 
tion. The  fundamental  principle  of  the 
Separatist  was  that  a  Christian  church 
should  consist  only  of  the  regenerate. 

The  vicar  of  the  church  at  Gainsborough 
at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century 
was  the  Rev.  John  Smyth,  M.  A.,  fellow  of 
Christ's  College,  Cambridge.  He  distin- 
guished himself  for  a  time  by  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  Separatists,  but  was  at  length 
converted  to  their  views,  and  about  1602 
resigned  his  benefice  to  become  the  pastor 
or  "teacher"  of  the  Separatist  flock  at 
Gainsborough.  People  who  lived  at 
Scrooby  and  other  neighboring  villages 
also  became  members  of  this  church,  and 
traveled  long  distances  to  attend  its  meet- 
ings; but  after  three  or  four  years  Scrooby 
became  a  second  meeting-place,  and  the 
congregation  there  had  its  own  teachers. 


68  The  Baptists 

William  Bradford  and  William  Brewster 
were  influential  members  of  this  group 
from  the  first,  and  after  a  time  John  Robin- 
son joined  them  as  teacher. 

Persecution  became  more  and  more 
sharp,  and  about  1606  Smyth  and  most  of 
his  Gainsborough  people  emigrated  to  Hol- 
land and  settled  at  Amsterdam,  where 
Smyth  continued  his  ministry  and  at 
the  same  time  supported  himself  by  the 
practice  of  medicine.  A  year  later  the 
Scrooby  group  followed  this  example,  but 
after  a  brief  stay  at  Amsterdam  settled  at 
Leyden.  It  was  this  latter  group,  rein- 
forced by  others  who  had  not  left  England, 
that  some  years  later  became  the  Pilgrims 
of  Plymouth.  We  are  at  present,  however, 
chiefly  interested  in  the  congregation  at 
Amsterdam,  under  the  pastoral  care  of  John 
Smyth. 

Up  to  this  time  it  does  not  appear  that 
Smyth  had  been  familiar  with  the  theology 
of  Arminius.  or  with  the  belief  and  practice 


The  Beginnings  69 

of  the  Mennonites.  Here  at  Amsterdam  he 
would  most  naturally  be  brought  to  know 
both.  His  was  always  an  eager  and  inquir- 
ing mind,  and  study  of  these  new  ideas 
soon  led  him  to  adopt  them  for  his  own. 
A  tract  called  "The  Character  of  the 
Beast,"  published  in  1609,  makes  known 
his  new  convictions  that  infant  baptism  is 
not  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  and  that  a 
church  of  Christ  should  consist  not  merely 
of  the  regenerate,  but  of  such  regenerate 
persons  as  have  been  baptized  on  their  own 
confession  of  faith.  There  had  been  trou- 
bles among  Smyth's  followers  before  this, 
but  the  church  was  now  led  to  withdraw 
fellowship  from  him. 

Thirty-six  members  are  said  to  have  ad- 
hered to  their  pastor  and  accepted  his 
views,  among  whom  Thomas  Helwys  and 
John  Murton  or  Morton  were  most  promi- 
nent. Believing  their  former  baptism  null, 
it  plainly  became  their  duty  to  be  baptized 
on  confession  of  faith.     Why,  having  come 


70  The  Baptists 

to  hold  the  beliefs  of  the  Mennonites,  they 
did  not  seek  membership  in  the  Mennonite 
churches  is  a  question  not  easy  to  answer. 
There  was  no  one  else  to  baptize  them;  all, 
including  Smyth  himself,  were  in  the  same 
unbaptized  condition.  This  proved  to  be 
no  serious  difficulty,  however,  for  a  cardi- 
nal doctrine  of  the  Separatists  was,  that 
any  body  of  faithful  believers  has  the  right 
and  power,  at  any  time  and  anywhere,  to 
originate  de  novo  a  church  of  Christ — and  if 
a  church,  then  a  ministry  and  the  sacra- 
ments. Accordingly,  Smyth  baptized  him- 
self (whence  he  is  often  called  in  the  liter- 
ature of  that  time  the  Se-baptist),  then 
Helwys  and  the  rest,  and  they  constituted 
themselves  a  new  church. 

Though  this  is  the  beginning  of  the  body 
afterward  known  in  England  as  the  Gen- 
eral Baptists  (because  they  believed  in  a 
general  atonement,  that  is,  for  all  men), 
this  was  not  a  Baptist  church,  in  the  full 
meaning  of  that  term.     Smyth  and  his  fol- 


The  Beginnings  71 

lowers  practiced  affusion.  Of  this  we 
have  positive  evidence  from  the  Mennonites 
of  Amsterdam.  For,  after  a  short  time, 
Smyth  and  some  others  separated  from  this 
new  church  and  sought  admission  to  the 
Mennonite  body.  The  latter  appointed  a 
committee  to  investigate  this  application, 
and  the  report  of  this  committee  says: 
"  We  also  inquired  for  the  foundation  and 
form  of  their  baptism,  and  we  have  not 
found  that  there  was  any  difference  at  all, 
neither  in  the  one  nor  in  the  other  thing." 
The  meaning  of  this  declaration  is  not 
doubtful,  for  in  the  literature  of  that  time 
"form"  of  baptism  is  used  as  we  now 
often  say  "mode"  of  baptism,  to  denote 
the  character  of  the  act.  How  the  General 
Baptists  afterward  became  immersionists 
will  be  related  further  on. 

Smyth  died  in  16 12,  but  a  year  before  that 
event  Helwys  and  Murton  and  some  others 
returned  to  England  and  settled  in  London. 
Persecution  was  just  then   much  relaxed, 


72  The  Baptists 

and  they  seem  to  have  suffered  little  or 
no  inconvenience.  Churches  of  the  same 
order  rapidly  sprang  up — in  1626  there  were 
four  others,  in  various  counties:  at  Lincoln, 
Coventry  (Warwick),  Sarum  (Wilts)  and 
Tiverton  (Devon).  In  1644  a  hostile  writer 
says  they  had  increased  to  forty-seven.  Of 
these  earlier  churches,  only  two  now  claim 
an  existence,  Coventry  and  Tiverton,  and 
there  is  no  evidence  to  prove  the  continuity 
of  the  present  churches  in  those  towns  with 
those  established  before  1626.  The  other 
English  Baptist  churches  (a  dozen  or  so) 
that  claim  an  early  origin,  dating  back  in 
some  cases  as  far  as  1555,  have  no  evidence 
whatever  to  produce,  except  some  vague 
information  that  there  was  a  congregation 
of  sectaries,  possibly  Anabaptists,  in  the 
same  locality  at  these  early  dates.  No  ex- 
tant records  go  back  beyond  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  most  of  these 
fanciful  dates  are  of  quite  recent  origin. 
Such  churches  might  as  reasonably  claim 


The  Beginnings  73 

that  they  were  founded  by  the  Apostle  Paul, 
A.  D.,  65. 

The  first  congregation  of  Particular  Bap- 
tists (called  Particular  because  they  were 
Calvinistic,  and  believed  in  a  particular 
atonement  that  is,  for  the  elect  only)  was 
formed  in  London  in  1633.  It  was  an  off- 
shoot of  a  Separatist  congregation  gathered 
in  1616,  by  Henry  Jacob,  in  what  was  then 
the  village  of  Southwark,  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  Thames  from  old  London,  From 
the  beginning  some  members  of  this  church 
had  scruples  about  the  baptism  of  infants, 
and  finally  they  asked  for  their  dismission 
to  form  a  separate  congregation.  Most  of 
them  at  this  time  received  "a  new  bap- 
tism," but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
immersion — it  was  "  new  "  in  the  sense  of 
a  second  baptism,  this  time  administered  on 
confession  of  faith.  Soon  after  their  or- 
ganization, John  Spilsbury  was  chosen  to  be 
their  pastor.  A  few  years  later  (1538)  a 
second  secession  occurred  from  the  original 


74  The  Baptists 

church,  on  the  same  grounds,  to  join  Spils- 
bury's  flock,  which  by  this  and  other  acces- 
sions became  large  enough  to  be  divided  in 
1640,  William  Kiffm  heading  the  new  col- 
ony. Spilsbury's  church  still  survives  in 
London  as  the  Whitechapel,  Commercial 
street,  while  that  of  Kiffin  is  known  as  the 
Devonshire  square,  Stoke-Newington. 

In  1640  the  original  church  became  two 
by  mutual  consent;  one  division,  remaining 
with  P.  Barebone,  continued  to  be  of  the 
Independent  or  Congregational  order,  while 
the  other,  of  which  Henry  Jessey  was  pas- 
tor, became  the  mother  of  at  least  two  more 
Baptist  churches.  Some  of  this  Jessey 
church  not  only  had  scruples  about  the  bap- 
tism of  infants,  but  had  been  convinced  by 
the  Scriptures  that  baptism  ought  to  be  by 
dipping  the  body  in  water.  They  were  not 
aware  that  any  Christians  in  England  prac- 
ticed such  baptism  of  professed  believers, 
though  an  occasional  parson  still  immersed 
infants,  but  hearing  that  some  in  the  Neth- 


The  Beginnings  7^ 

eriands  so  practiced,  they  sent  one  of  their 
number,  Richard  Blount,  who  was  duly  im- 
mersed by  John  Batten,  a  teacher  of  the 
Collegiates  at  Leyden.  Returning,  Mr. 
Blount  baptized  Mr.  Blacklock,  another 
"teacher"  of  these  people,  these  two  bap- 
tized the  rest,  and  so  the  first  Baptist  church, 
in  the  full  acceptation  of  that  term,  was 
constituted,  in  the  year  1641.  Perhaps  two 
churches  were  constituted,  for  these  people 
had  been  meeting  in  two  companies  and 
purposed  so  to  continue,  and  they  may  have 
counted  themselves  distinct  bodies  from 
that  time.  In  1645  Henry  Jessey  himself 
led  another  colony  out  to  form  still  another 
Baptist  church. 

By  1644  there  were  seven  congregations 
of  this  order  in  London,  and  they  united  in 
the  publication  of  a  Confession  of  Faith,  in 
fifty  articles.  The  object  was  to  correct 
the  misrepresentations  scattered  abroad  by 
their  opponents,  and  particularly  the  false 
and    scandalous    statements    contained    in 


76  The  Baptists 

"The  Dippers  Dipt,"  by  Dr.  Daniel  Featly, 
a  member  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of 
divines,  but  not  a  Presbyterian.  This  is  the 
first  Confession  to  define  baptism  as  "dip- 
ping or  plunging  the  body  under  water." 
All  the  Particular  Baptist  churches  had  now 
definitely  adopted  this  practice,  not  all  in 
direct  succession  from  Blount,  but  some 
merely  appointed  their  pastor  or  one  of  their 
own  number  to  administer  the  ordinance. 
As  John  Spilsbury  put  it,  "  Where  there  is 
a  beginning,  some  must  be  first." 

Just  when  and  how  the  change  began 
among  the  General  Baptists  is  not  recorded. 
Some  hint  is  afforded  us  in  the  fact  that 
during  the  decade  from  1640  to  1650  cor- 
respondence between  their  churches  and 
the  Mennonites  of  Holland,  which  had 
previously  been  continuous  and  friendly, 
entirely  ceased.  Mennonlte  writers  allege 
as  the  reason  for  this  rupture  the  change 
from  affusion  to  immersion  by  the  English 
churches.     No    other    hypothesis    fits    the 


The  Beginnings  77 

facts  so  well.  We  know,  however,  that 
the  change  of  practice  was  gradual  among 
the  General  Baptists,  and  that  for  some 
years  there  remained  among  them  two 
parties,  the  Old  Men  or  Aspersi  and  the 
New  Men  or  Immersi.  So  late  as  1653  we 
find  several  congregations  in  Lincolnshire 
that  still  affused,  but  rejected  infant  bap- 
tism, which  was  pronounced  by  other 
Baptists  "a  mere  demi-reformation." 

These  proceedings  were  coincident  with 
the  greatest  political  and  religious  struggle 
that  ever  convulsed  England.  The  same 
twelvemonth  in  which  the  first  Baptist 
church  was  formed  saw  the  meeting  of  the 
Long  Parliament,  the  condemnation  of  Straf- 
ford and  the  imprisonment  of  Archbishop 
Laud.  Had  this  change  begun  sooner,  it  is 
probable  that  a  violent  persecution  would 
have  followed ;  as  it  fell  out,  there  was  violent 
opposition  but  no  persecution.  The  power 
to  punish  was  gone,  but  the  spirit  of  intol- 
erance remained.     This  restoration  of  im- 


78  The  Baptists 

mersion,  which,  though  the  ancient  practice 
of  the  Church  of  England,  had  practically 
lapsed,  might  have  been  looked  upon  with 
comparative  indifference  by  other  Chris- 
tians, had  these  new  churches  been  content 
to  practice  immersion  as  one  of  the  ways 
of  administering  baptism.  But  when  they 
contended  that  immersion  was  not  merely 
the  preferable  way  of  baptizing,  but  that 
immersion  alone  is  baptism  at  all,  the  case 
was  different.  These  churches  were  the 
first,  so  far  as  known,  to  maintain  this  as 
the  teaching  of  Scripture.  Other  Christians 
before  them  had  immersed,  but  none  had 
refused  to  recognize  any  alternative  act  as 
constituting  valid  baptism. 

Moreover,  the  churches  gave  practical 
effect  to  their  new  doctrine  and  practice  in 
the  most  impressive  way — they  refused  to 
hold  communion  with  other  churches,  on 
the  ground  that  Christians  who  had  been 
affused  only  had  not  been  baptized.  "  Bap- 
tism," says  Article  XXXIX  of  their  Con- 


The  Beginnings  79 

fession,  "is  an  ordinance  of  the  New 
Testament,  given  by  Christ,  to  be  dis- 
pensed upon  persons  confessing  faith,  or 
that  are  made  disciples,  who  upon  profes- 
sion of  faith  ought  to  be  baptized,  and  after 
to  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper."  To  be 
sure,  this  was  no  more  than  the  common 
doctrine  of  Christians  of  all  ages  regarding 
the  qualifications  of  communicants,  from 
which  Socinus  and  his  followers  alone  had 
dissented;  but  the  logical  deduction  from 
this  and  the  new  doctrine  of  baptism 
seemed  to  other  Christians  then,  and  has 
always  seemed  to  them,  harsh  and  invidi- 
ous. It  is  a  matter  of  sentiment  rather  than 
of  logic,  and  whenever  such  a  conflict  oc- 
curs, logic  commonly  gets  the  worst  of  it. 

These  things  were  not  done  in  a  corner, 
but  soon  became  widely  known,  and  pro- 
voked a  storm  of  protest,  ridicule  and  de- 
nunciation. A  cloud  of  pamphlets  poured 
from  the  press,  attacking  or  justifying  the 
doctrine  and    practice    of    this   new  sect. 


8o  The  Baptists 

Two  thousand  titles  of  publications  sent 
forth  in  little  more  than  a  generation,  still 
extant  and  catalogued,  testify  to  the  great 
interest  that  was  aroused  about  this  matter. 
The  name  Baptist  now  first  appears  in  Eng- 
lish literature,  to  describe  these  new  churches 
and  the  new  practice,  and  after  some  hesi- 
tation was  accepted  by  them  as  their 
official  designation.  They  protested  against 
the  name  Anabaptist  as  false  and  mislead- 
ing, but  the  name  Baptist,  though  not  what 
they  would  have  chosen,  was  compara- 
tively unobjectionable.  They  did  not  deny 
that  their  doctrine  and  practice  were  in 
some  sense  "  new  "  in  England;  they  main- 
tained, however,  that  both  were  as  old  as 
the  New  Testament  and  the  churches 
founded  by  the  apostles.  And  on  that  con- 
tention they  were  willing  to  rest  their  case. 
In  this  pamphlet  literature  we  find  less 
than  we  might  have  reasonably  expected 
about  the  Baptist  practice  of  "close"  com- 
munion.    There  are  two  reasons  for  this. 


The  Beginnings  8l 

The  first  is,  that  the  other  sects  of  the  Com- 
monwealth period  realized  that  the  pinch  of 
the  argument  was  not  at  this  point,  but  at 
the  question  of  what  constituted  valid  bap- 
tism; and  so  almost  the  whole  controversy 
throughout  the  seventeenth  century,  was 
regarding  the  act  of  baptism  and  its  proper 
subjects.  A  second  reason  is,  that  Baptists 
themselves  were  not  entirely  agreed  on  this 
subject  of  communion.  Many  of  the  ear- 
liest Baptist  churches  were  like  those  whose 
history  we  have  already  treated,  offshoots 
of  Separatist  congregations,  and  maintained 
the  warmest  relations  with  those  from 
whom  they  had  reluctantly  and  peaceably 
withdrawn.  In  this  way,  some  Baptist 
churches  from  the  first  disregarded  the 
strict  logic  of  their  position,  and  practiced 
intercommunion  with  any  other  Christians 
who  desired  their  fellowship.  The  earliest 
controversies  on  the  communion  question 
are,  therefore,  between  Baptists  and  Bap- 
tists, not  between  Baptists  and  non-Baptists. 


82  The  Baptists 

In  the  struggle  for  liberty  in  which  the 
English  people  were  now  engaged,  the 
Baptists  enlisted  with  all  their  soul.  They 
had  been  advocates  from  the  first  of  com- 
plete religious  liberty — the  only  party  in 
England  during  the  seventeenth  century, 
save  perhaps  the  Friends,  who  understood 
what  liberty  meant.  Others  desired  liberty 
for  themselves,  freedom  from  persecution 
for  those  who  agreed  with  them,  but  had 
no  notion  whatever  of  granting  even  tolera- 
tion to  others.  The  Baptists  maintained 
that  it  was  wrong  to  persecute  any  for 
religious  belief  and  practice,  and  denied  the 
right  of  the  civil  power  to  interfere  in  any 
way  with  religion.  A  Confession  of  faith 
issued  by  John  Smyth  and  his  followers 
(1612?)  is  explicit  on  this  point:  "The 
magistrate,  by  virtue  of  his  office,  is  not  to 
meddle  with  religion,  or  matters  of  con- 
science, nor  to  compel  men  to  this  or  that 
form  of  religion  or  doctrine,  but  to  leave 
the  Christian  religion  to  the  free  conscience 


The  Beginnings  83 

of  every  one,  and  to  meddle  only  with 
political  matters.  .  .  .  Christ  alone  is  the 
king  and  lawgiver  of  the  church  and  the 
conscience."  And  the  Confession  of  1644 
declares:  "  And  concerning  the  worship  of 
God,  there  is  but  one  lawgiver  .  .  .  which 
is  Jesus  Christ.  ...  So  it  is  the  magis- 
trate's duty  to  tender  the  liberty  of  men's 
consciences  (which  is  the  tenderest  thing 
unto  all  conscientious  men,  and  most  dear 
unto  them,  without  which  all  other  liberties 
will  not  be  worth  the  naming,  much  less 
the  enjoying),  and  to  protect  all  under  them 
from  all  wrong,  injury,  oppression  and 
molestation." 

Cherishing  such  views  as  these,  it  is  not 
remarkable  that  the  Baptists  were  unani- 
mous supporters  of  the  Parliament  in  its 
struggle  against  the  tyrannous  misgovern- 
ment  of  Charles  1.  When  Cromwell  began 
to  raise  his  "new  model,"  many  Baptists 
took  service  under  him,  and  some  of  them 
rose  to  be  his  most  trusted  officers.     To 


84  The  Baptists 

one  of  them,  Colonel  Fleetwood,  he  gave  a 
daughter  in  marriage,  and  another,  Thomas 
Harrison,  was  his  lieutenant-general. 
Others,  though  less  conspicuous,  rendered 
valuable  services  to  the  commonwealth, 
which  were  generously  recognized.  During 
the  Protectorate,  it  is  true,  the  devotion  of 
these  same  officers  notably  cooled.  Fleet- 
wood became  the  head  of  army  cabals 
against  his  chief,  and  Harrison  fell  into  dis- 
grace and  was  at  one  time  committed  to 
prison.  The  reason  of  this  conduct  on 
their  part  was  that  they  suspected  Crom- 
well, and  with  good  reason,  to  be  at  the 
point  of  accepting  the  crown.  The  army 
was  opposed  to  monarchy,  and  in  favor  of 
a  republic,  and  it  was  this  determined  oppo- 
sition that  finally  caused  the  rejection  of  the 
royal  title  by  the  actual  head  of  the  State. 

It  is  the  great  merit  of  the  Protector  that, 
when  he  had  attained  absolute  power,  he 
not  only  shattered  the  spiritual  despotism 
of  the  Stuart  reigns,  but  that  he  steadfastly 


The  Beginnings  85 

refused  to  erect  another  despotism  on  its 
ruins.  The  Presbyterian  party  would  gladly 
have  set  up  a  national  Church,  as  rigidly 
exclusive  and  as  bitterly  persecuting  as  the 
old  Church  of  England  had  been.  They 
had  conquered  liberty  for  themselves,  and 
now  they  were  prepared  to  deny  liberty  to 
all  others.  To  this  Cromwell  and  his  army 
would  by  no  means  consent.  The  Iron- 
sides were  not  Presbyterians — a  majority  of 
these  warriors  were  Independents  and  Bap- 
tists—and they  had  not  fought  to  rid  them- 
selves of  one  yoke  only  to  have  another 
placed  on  their  necks.  The  army  and  Par- 
liament were  therefore  brought  into  sharp 
conflict  over  this  question,  and  of  the  issue 
there  could  be  no  doubt.  Parliament  was 
not  then  forcibly  dissolved,  but  it  was 
"purged";  the  rigid  Presbyterian  element 
was  excluded,  and  the  danger  of  the  new 
spiritual  tyranny  was  averted.  Had  their 
designs  succeeded,  it  would  have  been  a 
capital  offence  to  profess  the  Unitarian  faith 


86  The  Baptists 

in  England,  while  every  Baptist  would  have 
been  in  danger  of  perpetual  imprison- 
ment. 

When  the  supreme  power  devolved 
upon  Cromwell,  he  established  a  system  as 
closely  approximating  complete  religious 
liberty  as  the  sentiments  of  Englishmen  in 
his  time  would  permit.  England  was  not 
ready  for  absolute  liberty,  which  requires 
complete  separation  between  the  civil 
power  and  the  Church,  but  it  received  for  a 
time  a  curiously  composite  ecclesiastical 
system.  A  commission  of  Triers  was  ap- 
pointed to  visit  the  parishes  of  the  kingdom 
and  see  that  they  were  supplied  with  quali- 
fied ministers.  Doctrinal  tests  were  pro- 
hibited, the  only  qualifications  required  be- 
ing piety  and  competence.  The  character 
of  the  public  religious  services  was  left  to 
each  incumbent.  Several  Baptists  were 
among  these  Triers,  and  it  is  known  that 
many  Baptist  ministers  accepted  benefices 
at  this  time — a  course  not  easy  to  reconcile 


The  Beginnings  87 

with  their  teaching,  both  before  and  after- 
ward. 

Not  because  of  such  favors  from  the 
State,  but  because  they  were  for  a  time 
given  complete  liberty  to  proclaim  their 
faith  to  all  who  would  hear.  Baptists  made 
rapid  progress.  At  the  Restoration,  in 
1660,  the  General  Baptists  alone  claimed  a 
membership  of  20,000;  and  while  they  may 
have  grown  more  rapidly  than  the  Particular 
wing,  and  also  had  an  earlier  start,  there 
must  have  been  several  thousands  of  the 
latter.  But  the  return  of  Charles  II  to  the 
throne  of  his  fathers  made  a  great  change 
in  their  condition  and  prospects.  True,  he 
had  promised  in  advance  his  consent  to 
whatever  measure  of  religious  toleration  his 
Parliaments  should  propose,  and  was  well 
inclined  to  grant  immunities  to  all  Dissent- 
ers that  he  might  protect  some  (the  Roman 
Catholics,  to  whom,  at  heart,  he  belonged); 
but  his  Parliaments  would  not  hear  to  any- 
thing of  the  kind.     By  a  series  of  severe 


88  The  Baptists 

statutes,  they  attempted  to  suppress  all 
forms  of  worship  not  in  accord  with  the 
prayer-book  of  the  Church  of  England, — 
which  was  promptly  restored,  with  a  few 
changes,  to  its  former  place  of  honor  and 
authority. 

These  statutes  entirely  failed  of  their 
main  object,  the  suppression  of  Dissent, 
but  they  did  make  the  lot  of  Dissenters 
hard,  and  greatly  impeded  the  progress  of 
all  the  unauthorized  sects.  The  heaviest 
restrictions  were  placed  upon  the  preachers 
of  the  Dissenting  bodies.  One  act  forbade 
any  of  these  to  approach  nearer  than  five 
miles  to  any  incorporated  town  or  borough 
in  the  kingdom.  By  thus  confining  these 
preachers  to  the  country  districts,  it  was 
doubtless  hoped  to  prevent  their  access  to 
their  people— that  they  might  incidentally 
perish  of  starvation  or  exposure  was  no 
concern  of  Parliament.  Another  act  made 
all  religious  gatherings  outside  of  the  parish 
churches  illegal,  and  heavily  punished  any 


The  Beginnings  89 

householder  who  permitted  more  than  three 
persons  not  belonging  to  his  own  family  to 
attend  a  religious  service  under  his  roof. 
Dissenters  were  disqualified  for  any  office 
of  honor,  trust  or  profit  under  the  crown, 
or  in  any  incorporated  town  or  borough — 
though  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  object 
of  this  restriction  was  the  exclusion  from 
office  of  Roman  Catholics  rather  than  of 
Protestant  Nonconformists.  This  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  scores  of  the  latter  occasion- 
ally communed  at  the  parish  churches,  and 
obtained  certificates  from  the  clergy,  in 
order  to  qualify  themselves  for  office,  and 
none  objected  to  the  practice  save  the  more 
scrupulous  among  the  Dissenters  them- 
selves. 

The  Baptist  preachers  suffered  severely 
under  these  unjust  laws,  many  of  them  be- 
ing punished  by  frequent  imprisonments 
and  fines.  Many  of  their  preachers,  if  not 
most  of  them,  had  some  secular  calling,  in 
which  they  were  successful  and  prosperous; 


9©  The  Baptists 

a  few  had  made  what  were  for  those  times 
considerable  fortunes  in  trade.  This,  on  the 
one  hand,  gained  for  them  powerful  friends 
and  some  immunity,  so  that  they  were  less 
liable  to  imprisonment  than  others  less  for- 
tunate; while  on  the  other  hand,  their  very 
wealth  exposed  them  the  more  frequently 
to  prosecutions  that  could  only  be  settled  by 
the  payment  of  large  fines.  Rich  or  poor, 
therefore,  the  Baptist  preacher  must  suffer 
for  his  faith,  if  not  in  person  then  in  estate. 
One  of  the  best  known  cases  is  that  of 
John  Bunyan,  the  author  of  "The  Pilgrim's 
Progress."  He  was  pastor  of  a  church  at 
Bedford,  composed  of  both  Baptists  and  In- 
dependents, and  for  preaching  to  them  he 
was  arrested  and  thrown  into  prison  three 
times,  his  confinement  lasting,  with  brief 
intervals,  nearly  thirteen  years.  He  might 
have  obtained  his  liberty  at  almost  any  time 
by  promising  to  abstain  from  preaching, 
and  giving  surety  (easily  found)  for  his 
good  behavior.     This  pledge  he  could  not 


The  Beginnings  91 

give.  He  could  suffer  for  his  Lord,  but  he 
could  not  deny  him.  For  the  world  this 
imprisonment  was  a  great  gain,  for  it  was 
while  in  this  "den"  that  Bunyan  dreamed 
his  dream  of  Christian  and  his  pilgrimage 
from  the  city  of  Destruction  to  the  Heavenly 
City,  and  wrote  it  down  for  the  delectation 
of  all  generations  to  follow.  It  is  one  of 
the  marvels  of  literature  that  this  poor 
tinker,  with  almost  no  education  beyond 
mere  reading  and  writing,  with  no  library 
save  his  Bible,  never  having  travelled  be- 
yond the  limits  of  England  and  having  lived 
a  very  narrow  life  in  his  own  country, 
should  have  been  able  to  produce  a  book 
that  is  marked  by  so  great  knowledge  of 
men  and  so  exquisite  literary  art — a  book  as 
much  admired  by  the  lovers  of  pure  litera- 
ture as  praised  by  the  seekers  after  true 
piety.  Less  known,  but  hardly  less  meri- 
torious, are  his  "Grace  Abounding,"  the 
spiritual  autobiography  of  Bunyan,  and  the 
"Holy  War,"  an  allegory  under  which  a 


92  The  Baptists 

typical  Puritan  "conversion"  is  described 
as  the  losing  and  recapture  of  tiie  town  of 
Mansoul.  The  quality  of  these  books  testi- 
fies that  Bunyan's  success  was  no  accident, 
but  that  he  was  the  great  prose  artist  of 
Puritanism,  as  Milton  was  its  great  artist  in 
verse. 

The  reign  of  James  II  saw  a  considerable 
relaxation  in  the  treatment  of  Dissenters  in 
England.  Charles  II  had  been  a  Romanist 
at  heart,  but  his  brother  and  successor  was 
a  Romanist  in  fact.  He  naturally  used  his 
royal  power  to  protect  and  favor  his  fellow- 
religionists,  and  it  was  this  policy  that 
finally  cost  him  his  throne.  The  immediate 
result  was  a  general  softening  of  the  penal 
laws,  not  by  their  repeal  or  formal  modifica- 
tion, but  in  their  enforcement.  Even  Prot- 
estant judges  and  prosecutors  and  con- 
stables were  not  insensible  to  royal  favors 
and  royal  frowns.  Besides,  the  English 
people  had  come  to  a  more  tolerant  mind 
and  spirit  as  regarded  the  Protestant  Dis- 


The  Beginnings  93 

senters,  and  were  not  averse  to  modifica- 
tion of  tlie  law  in  tiieir  favor,  though  they 
wished  the  modification  to  be  made  law- 
fully. James  took  advantage  of  this  feeling, 
and  had  he  been  a  man  of  tact  and  discre- 
tion he  might  have  gained  substantial  privi- 
leges for  the  Roman  Catholics  also.  But  he 
chose  to  pursue  his  policy  by  reviving  one 
of  the  most  odious  prerogatives  claimed  by 
Charles  I,  and  asserting  the  superiority  of 
the  crown  over  Parliament  and  the  law. 
He  issued  a  royal  proclamation  of  dispensa- 
tion, by  which  the  penal  laws  against  the 
Dissenters  were  suspended,  and  the  officers 
of  the  law  were  warned  to  take  no  further 
proceedings. 

Thus  by  one  act  the  king  had  contrived  to 
arouse  against  himself  the  slumbering  re- 
ligious prejudices  of  Englishmen,  always 
quick  to  detect  anything  that  smacked  of 
Popery,  and  at  the  same  time  the  resent- 
ment of  every  patriot.  It  was  a  master- 
stroke of    folly,   of    which   only  a  Stuart 


94  The  Baptists 

would  have  been  capable.  If  his  proclama- 
tion remained  in  force,  all  that  had  been 
won  by  the  people  in  their  great  struggle 
against  Charles  I  had  been  lost,  and  their 
liberties  and  property  were  again  at  the 
mercy  of  a  despotic  monarch.  There  could 
be  only  one  ending  to  such  a  strife  as  that 
upon  which  James  entered  so  lightly,  for 
he  lived  too  late  and  was  too  weak  a  ruler 
to  enforce  a  despotic  policy.  The  loss  of 
kingdom  and  crown  was  but  a  little  de- 
layed. The  revolution  that  placed  William 
of  Orange  on  the  throne  involved  the  reset- 
tling of  the  constitution,  and  a  fresh  exten- 
sion of  liberty.  And  that  necessitated 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  a  religious  des- 
potism could  no  longer  be  maintained  in 
England — toleration  at  least  must  be  granted 
to  those  who  differed  from  the  majority  in 
matters  of  religion,  but  were  loyal  to  king 
and  law.  There  might  still  be  a  religion  by 
law  established,  a  Church  protected  and 
fostered  by  the  State;  but  liberty  to  with- 


The  Beginnings  95 

draw  from  that  Church  and  worship  God  as 
their  consciences  dictated,  must  now  be 
conceded  to  all  who  could  not  conscien- 
tiously go  with  the  majority. 

The  Act  of  Toleration  of  1689  is  rightly 
regarded  as  one  of  the  foremost  constitu- 
tional statutes,  the  third  of  the  great  char- 
ters of  English  liberty,  standing  next  to  the 
Petition  of  Right  and  Magna  Charta.  It  re- 
lieved Baptists  forever  from  the  fear  of 
punishment  for  fidelity  to  their  religious 
convictions.  If  it  did  not  bestow  upon 
them  and  other  Dissenters  complete  relig- 
ious liberty — nothing  but  Disestablishment 
could  do  that — it  did  leave  them  measurably 
free  to  work  out  their  own  destiny.  It 
was,  at  any  rate,  a  guarantee  that  hence- 
forth they  should  not  be  molested  in  person 
and  property  for  the  sake  of  religion.  And 
that  the  Baptists  at  once  felt  the  inspiration 
of  this  hope  is  evident.  In  the  same  year 
that  the  act  was  passed,  an  Assembly  was 
held  in  London  representing  the  Particular 


96  The  Baptists 

churches,  at  which  a  new  confession  was 
adopted.  With  the  object  of  emphasizing 
as  far  as  possible  the  things  on  which  they 
agreed  with  other  Christians,  the  Assembly 
took  the  Westminster  Confession  almost 
entire  and  made  it  their  own,  introducing 
changes  in  a  few  chapters  only,  and  these 
such  as  were  absolutely  necessary  to  state 
accurately  the  views  of  Baptists  regarding 
the  church,  the  sacraments  and  the  function 
of  the  civil  magistrate.  Less  than  fifty 
years  had  passed  since  the  organization  of 
the  first  Baptist  church.  Churches  of  that 
faith  were  now  scattered  throughout  Eng- 
land, and  their  members  were  counted  by 
thousands.  There  was  every  prospect  be- 
fore them  of  rapid  and  continuous  growth. 
What  kind  of  people  were  these  Bap- 
tists? Mostly  plain  folk  of  the  middle 
class,  though  a  few  of  the  gentry  were 
found  among  them,  and  not  a  few  of  their 
first  ministers  were  men  educated  in  the 
universities.     In  what  may  be  called  their 


The  Beginnings  97 

church  life,  their  religious  customs,  they 
differed  considerably  from  Baptists  of  to- 
day. Many  of  the  peculiarities  that  we 
have  come  to  associate  with  the  Society  of 
Friends  were  found  in  these  churches;  in- 
deed, a  large  part  of  George  Fox's  first  so- 
cieties were  composed  of  those  who  had 
been  Baptists,  and  much  of  the  life  and 
discipline  of  the  Friends  was  derived  from 
this  source.  Baptists  in  the  seventeenth 
century  used  the  "plain  language,"  the 
"thee"  and  "thou  "also  adopted  by  Fox 
and  his  followers;  and  they  repudiated  the 
names  of  days  and  months  of  heathen  or- 
igin, writing  in  their  church  books  "first 
month,"  "second  day,"  and  the  like.  In 
their  "meeting-houses"  (they  would  not 
call  them  churches)  the  men  and  women 
sat  on  opposite  sides  of  the  room,  and  it 
was  common  for  the  men  to  bring  their 
pipes  and  smoke  them  during  the  sermon. 
The  privilege  of  women  to  equal  participa- 
tion in  service  with  men  was  recognized 


98  The  Baptists 

among  them ;  women  "  prophesied  "  among 
them,  and  as  deaconesses  aided  in  the  relief 
of  their  poor,  on  which  they  laid  great 
stress.  Singing  was  discouraged,  the 
major  part  contending  that  it  should  be  al- 
together excluded  from  public  worship. 
Owing  to  the  abuses  connected  with  church 
"livings,"  they  were  greatly  averse  to  hav- 
ing any  fixed  stipend  for  their  ministers, 
most  of  whom  engaged  in  secular  callings 
for  their  support  and  received  little  or  noth- 
ing from  the  churches  save  their  travelling 
expenses.  Still,  it  was  held  to  be  the  duty 
of  churches  to  contribute  voluntarily  from 
their  means  for  the  support  of  the  ministry. 
Not  only  their  ministers,  commonly  called 
"elders,"  were  set  apart  by  the  laying  on 
of  hands,  but  the  deacons  also,  who  were 
often  called  "helps  in  government."  Fast- 
ing and  the  washing  of  fellow-disciples' 
feet  were  general  practices,  and  the  anoint- 
ing of  the  sick  with  oil  was  the  rule  among 
them.     Church  discipline  was  very  strict. 


The  Beginnings  99 

"Marrying  out  of  meeting"  was  an  of- 
fence that  always  involved  disfellowship. 
Amusements  were  held  in  great  disfavor, 
and  those  that  might  be  enjoyed  without 
excommunication  were  few  and  not  very 
exciting.  Close  watch  was  kept  upon 
manners  and  morals,  and  extravagance  and 
luxury  were  sternly  rebuked.  All  Baptists 
were  expected  to  wear  simple  apparel,  and 
their  garb  was  that  of  the  modern  Quaker, 
which  was  the  common  dress  of  the  time. 
They  did  not,  however,  confound  simplic- 
ity with  peculiarity,  and  changed  their 
dress  from  time  to  time  to  avoid  unneces- 
sary conspicuousness.  So,  as  they  found 
others  of  these  customs  to  be  no  longer  edi- 
fying and  helpful,  they  gradually  suffered 
such  to  lapse— a  course,  as  they  believed, 
wiser  than  that  adopted  by  Fox  and  his  fol- 
lowers. 


CHAPTER  IV 

BAPTISTS   IN    GREAT  BRITAIN    AND   HER   DEPEND- 
ENCIES 

The  eighteenth  century  opened  with  the 
most  flattering  prospects  of  growth  before 
the  Baptists  of  England;  when  it  closed 
there  were  still  flattering  prospects,  but 
there  had  been  surprisingly  little  growth. 
It  is  not  easy  to  make  even  an  approximate 
estimate  of  their  numbers  at  any  time  dur- 
ing this  century,  but  we  are  able  to  esti- 
mate the  rate  of  their  increase.  There  are 
now  existing  in  England  123  Baptist 
churches  that  are  older  than  the  Act  of 
Toleration.  During  the  next  half-century 
sixty-eight  such  churches  were  established, 
and  in  the  second  half  of  the  century  165 
others.  A  closer  analysis  shows  that  more 
than  a  hundred  of  these  later  additions  were 


In  Great  Britain  loi 

made  in  the  two  closing  decades  of  the  cen- 
tury. The  gross  numbers  would  be  con- 
siderably altered,  of  course,  if  we  had  def- 
inite records  of  the  churches  that  were 
formed  and  afterward  dissolved,  but  the 
relative  proportions  would  probably  not  be 
greatly  altered.  A  century's  labors,  there- 
fore, after  the  Act  of  Toleration  had  re- 
sulted in  just  about  doubhng  the  number  of 
Baptists.  A  growth  of  loo  per  cent,  a  cen- 
tury would,  in  some  cases  easily  conceiv- 
able, be  little  less  than  marvellous;  in  the 
present  case  it  is  comparative  failure. 

Are  we  to  seek  the  causes  of  this  failure 
among  the  Baptists  themselves  or  in  their 
environment  ?  Was  there  some  fatal  lack 
in  their  character,  their  organization,  their 
policy  ?  Or  did  the  times  and  the  people 
constitute  such  conditions  as  made  rapid 
progress  nearly  impossible  ?  Careful  study 
of  the  facts  shows  that  there  is  something 
to  be  said  under  both  these  heads. 

There  were  certain  conditions  among  the 


102  The  Baptists 

Baptists  themselves  that  made  rapid  growth 
improbable,  not  to  say  impossible.  To  be- 
gin with,  they  had  been  from  the  first 
divided  into  two  opposing  theological  fac- 
tions. The  strife  between  Calvinism  and 
Arminianism  was  still  a  bitter  warfare,  in 
which  quarter  was  neither  asked  nor  given. 
The  jealousy  and  bitterness  thus  engendered 
between  these  two  wings  of  the  Baptists 
would  be  incredible  to  one  who  had  not 
otherwise  learned  the  lengths  to  which 
theological  controversy  will  carry  those  who 
profess  to  be  followers  of  Christ.  A  single 
example  will  afford  a  measure  of  this  bitter- 
ness. When  Dan  Taylor,  the  founder  of 
the  New  Connection  of  General  Baptists, 
having  been  first  a  Wesleyan  convert,  had 
been  led  by  study  of  the  New  Testament  to 
adopt  Baptist  views,  but  could  not  lay  aside 
the  Arminian  doctrines  he  had  learned  from 
Wesley,  none  of  the  Baptist  ministers  of 
his  neighborhood  would  baptize  him, 
though  they  had  no  doubt  whatever  that  he 


In  Great  Britain  103 

was  a  Christian  and  was  called  by  God  to 
the  ministry.  They  had  the  advantage  of 
Peter,  who  in  similar  circumstances  said, 
"What  was  I  that  I  could  hinder  God?" 
They  were  Particular  Baptists! 

In  addition  to  this,  each  wing  contained 
its  peculiar  weaknesses  and  tendencies  to 
disintegration — infirmities  that  failed  to 
manifest  themselves  earlier  only  because  the 
pressure  of  persecution  had  temporarily 
suppressed  them.  With  freedom  always 
comes  opportunity  of  wrong-doing. 
Among  the  General  Baptists  there  had  been 
from  the  first  two  tendencies,  apparently 
but  not  really  conflicting,  the  one  toward  a 
stricter  polity,  the  other  toward  a  laxer 
doctrine.  The  pure  independency  typical 
of  Baptist  churches  was  gradually  modified 
in  the  direction  of  Presbyterianism.  Their 
General  Assembly,  instead  of  remaining  a 
purely  advisory  and  executive  body,  by 
degrees  assumed  the  functions  of  a  court. 
First  attempting  to  decide  questions  arising 


104  T^^  Baptists 

between  sister  churches,  or  between  a 
church  and  some  recalcitrant  members,  it 
then  undertook  the  supervision  of  minis- 
terial morals  and  doctrine,  and  finally  inter- 
vened in  all  sorts  of  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
The  issue  was  continual  strife  and  contro- 
versy, resulting  at  length  in  the  complete 
paralysis  of  the  churches. 

Along  with  this  went  the  tendency  to- 
ward a  laxer  doctrine.  Socianian  ideas 
spread  among  the  preachers.  Matthew 
Caffyn,  a  Sussex  pastor,  was  one  of  the  first 
to  be  suspected  of  heresy,  and  soon  the 
body  was  divided  into  adherents  and  op- 
ponents of  Caffyn.  By  the  middle  of  the 
century,  a  great  part,  some  would  say  the 
majority,  of  the  General  Baptists  had  become 
Unitarians.  A  similar  process  was  going  on 
at  the  same  time  among  the  Presbyterians. 
A  considerable  part  of  the  English  Unitar- 
ians to-day  are  not  such  in  corporate  name, 
but  still  retain  their  ancient  names  of  Bap- 
tist or  Presbyterian — ^just  as,  in  New  Eng- 


In  Great  Britain  105 

land,  many  Unitarian  churches  still  bear  the 
corporate  title  of  Congregational  churches. 
In  neither  of  these  bodies  was  the  power  of 
a  closer  organization  able  to  resist  the  heret- 
ical lapse — the  theoretical  advantages  that 
such  a  "strong"  government  has  over  the 
weaker  independency  did  not  manifest 
themselves  in  practice. 

While  the  Calvinistic  wing  escaped  these 
dangers,  proving  especially  immune  to  the 
Socinian  heresy  that  so  greatly  affected 
other  bodies,  including  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, a  malady  not  less  serious  attacked  it. 
There  was,  among  the  earliest  and  ablest  of 
the  preachers,  a  marked  tendency  toward 
high  Calvinism,  and  this  developed  in  the 
eighteenth  century  into  hyper-Calvinism, 
which  as  a  theology  becomes  fatalism,  and 
as  morals  antinomianism.  English  good 
sense  and  the  English  conscience  prevented 
the  latter  error  from  becoming  dangerous  at 
any  time,  but  the  fatalistic  idea  obtained  no 
little  hold  on  men's  minds.     So  much  was 


io6  The  Baptists 

this  the  case  that  in  many  Baptist  churches 
it  was  reckoned  an  impertinence,  if  not  a 
sin,  for  a  preacher  to  invite  the  impenitent 
to  beheve  in  Christ — that  is  the  office  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  who  effectually  calls  in  his  own 
time  those  who  are  elect  of  God  to  salva- 
tion. It  was  the  duty  of  the  Christian 
preacher,  as  they  conceived  it,  to  edify,  in- 
struct and  comfort  the  saints,  and  to  warn 
sinners  of  the  wrath  to  come,  but  exhorta- 
tion and  invitation  of  sinners  were  useless, 
if  not  wicked.  The  result  of  such  beliefs 
does  not  require  description.  Growth  un- 
der such  conditions  would  be  little  short  of 
miraculous,  so  completely  would  it  be  at 
variance  with  the  ordinary  workings  of  hu- 
man nature. 

But  even  these  things  do  not  adequately 
explain  the  failure  of  the  English  Baptists 
to  advance  more  rapidly.  There  were  con- 
ditions outside  of  themselves,  for  which 
they  were  in  no  way  responsible,  that  shut 
them  in  as  behind  iron  bars.     The  eight- 


In  Great  Britain  107 

eenth  century  was  a  time  of  low  religious 
tension  everywhere,  and  particularly  in 
England.  In  the  Established  Church,  as 
well  as  in  the  Dissenting  bodies,  it  was  an 
era  of  weakness,  declension  and  demoraliza- 
tion. Between  1689  and  1750,  a  period  of 
two  generations,  there  is  barely  one  great 
name  among  the  clergy  of  England,  that  of 
Joseph  Butler.  It  was  an  age  of  feeble 
mediocrity,  of  rampant  unbelief,  of  gross 
immorality,  where  strength  and  faith  and 
purity  might  reasonably  have  been  looked 
for.  The  progress  of  any  religious  denomi- 
nation in  a  time  of  general  spiritual  dearth 
and  stagnation,  while  not  an  impossibility, 
is  not  what  we  should  ordinarily  expect; 
and  it  is  not,  therefore,  especially  discredit- 
able to  the  Baptists  that  they  made  but  slow 
advances  during  this  time. 

That  adverse  external  conditions  had  more 
to  do  with  retarding  their  growth  than  in- 
ternal difficulties  and  dissensions,  seems  to 
be  proved  by  the  events  of  the  second  half 


io8  The  Baptists 

of  this  century.  The  great  spiritual  fact  of 
that  time  is  the  Wesleyan  revival — the  sec- 
ond Reformation  in  England.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  overstate  either  the  intensity  or 
the  far-reaching  effects  of  this  movement. 
Beginning  as  a  leaven  in  the  Church  of 
England,  the  attempt  of  a  few  zealous  young 
men  to  seek  the  higher  spiritual  life,  it  soon 
burst  the  bands  with  which  narrow  Church- 
men would  fain  have  confined  it,  and  be- 
came a  mighty  evangelizing  force,  breath- 
ing a  new  spiritual  life  into  the  English  na- 
tion, which  manifested  itself  in  a  permanent 
modification  of  English  character,  and  by 
consequence  in  an  extensive  reconstruction 
of  moral  ideals,  of  religious  institutions,  of 
social  customs.  Baptists  did  not,  they  could 
not,  escape  the  consequences  of  so  great  a 
spiritual  and  moral  revolution;  their  the- 
ology was  modified,  their  spirit  changed; 
yet  with  them  this  was  not  so  much  the  in- 
troduction of  something  quite  new,  as  a 
bringing  of  them  back  to  their  earlier  princi- 


In  Great  Britain  109 

pies  and  practices.  But  though  the  change 
thus  produced  in  them  was  considerable, 
the  change  in  surrounding  conditions  was 
more  profound,  complete  and  lasting;  and 
in  this  we  find,  largely,  the  secret  of  their 
relatively  rapid  advance  in  the  last  quarter 
of  the  century. 

The  General  Baptists  were  the  first  to  re- 
spond, mainly  because  of  the  labors  of  a 
single  man ;  a  Yorkshire  miner  of  little  learn- 
ing, but  of  great  natural  abilities,  and  of  a 
piety  and  zeal  unexcelled,  Dan  Taylor. 
Soon  after  his  conversion  under  the  preach- 
ing of  John  Wesley,  his  talents  for  exhorta- 
tion induced  his  brethren  to  encourage  him 
in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  his  im- 
mediate success  led  him  to  devote  himself 
to  this  work.  When  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures made  him  a  Baptist,  and  he  could  find 
no  Particular  Baptist  minister  to  baptize  him 
(there  were  no  General  Baptists  near)  he 
made  a  journey  into  Lincolnshire  and  was 
baptized  in  a  river  near  Gamston,  February 


110  The  Baptists 

16,  1763.  Returning  he  gathered  a  church 
and  began  to  preach  in  all  the  surrounding 
region.  He  was  fervidly  evangelical,  and 
as  he  learned  more  of  the  General  Baptists 
he  found  himself  v/holly  out  of  sympathy 
with  most  of  them;  and  as  his  influence 
grew  there  gradually  took  form  in  his  mind 
the  project  of  a  new  organization.  In  1770, 
through  his  agency,  was  formed  the  Assem- 
bly of  Free  Grace  General  Baptists,  gener- 
ally known  as  the  New  Connection,  of  which 
he  became  the  leading  spirit,  practically  its 
bishop  for  many  years,  though  both  he  and 
they  would  have  indignantly  repudiated  the 
name.  He  was  indefatigable  in  labors,  and 
the  General  Baptists  increased  with  great 
rapidity. 

New  life  was  also  manifested  among  the 
Particular  Baptists.  Two  men  were  espe- 
cially prominent  as  leaders  of  this  advance. 
William  Carey,  village  cobbler,  schoolmas- 
ter, preacher,  missionary,  scholar,  was  one 
of  England's  greatest  men,  doing  more  to 


In  Great  Britain  1 1 1 

make  the  India  of  to-day  than  CHve  or 
Hastings,  and  contributing  to  the  making  of 
Christian  England  hardly  less  than  John 
Wesley.  The  great  missionary  enterprise 
begun  by  him,  which  will  be  more  fully 
treated  in  a  later  chapter,  had  results  so  ex- 
tensive and  powerful,  not  only  upon  his 
own  people,  but  upon  the  whole  Christian 
world,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  to  fall  into 
exaggeration  or  hyperbole  in  describing 
their  character  or  diversity.  Andrew  Fuller 
(1754-1815)  was  born  to  be  his  comple- 
ment. A  Calvinist  in  theology,  yet  re- 
volted by  the  extreme  and  barren  doctrine 
of  many  who  marched  under  that  banner, 
he  was  not  only  a  pungent  and  practical 
preacher,  but  a  masterful  man  of  aflfairs. 
The  English  Baptist  Missionary  Society  was 
formed  in  his  study  at  Kettering,  October 
2,  1792,  and  for  many  years  Fuller  was  its 
life  and  soul.  Slowly  the  Baptist  churches 
rallied  to  the  support  of  these  two  men,  and 
in  so  doing  found  themselves,  and  began  a 


112  The  Baptists 

new  career  of  usefulness.  That  more  than 
a  hundred  new  churches  were  constituted 
in  the  two  decades  following  the  organiza- 
tion of  this  society  is  a  sufficient  testimony 
to  the  reflex  influence  upon  the  English 
Baptists  of  their  effort  to  give  the  gospel  to 
India. 

The  nineteenth  century  is  most  remark- 
able, perhaps,  for  the  increase  of  solidarity 
and  organization  that  was  the  result  of  this 
missionary  movement  begun  by  Carey. 
Much  earlier  than  this,  to  be  sure,  there  had 
been  the  beginnings  of  organization  in  both 
wings  of  the  Baptists.  The  Particular  Bap- 
tist churches  took  the  lead  in  this.  The 
seven  churches  of  London,  as  we  have 
seen,  united  in  the  publication  of  a  Confes- 
sion in  1644;  but  this  was  union  for  a 
specific  and  temporary  purpose,  and,  hav- 
ing attained  its  object,  led  to  nothing 
further  just  then.  In  1653,  the  churches  of 
Somersetshire  formed  an  association  in- 
tended to  be  permanent,  though  it  endured 


In  Great  Britain  113 

but  four  years  or  so.  In  1655,  however, 
churches  in  the  central  counties  formed  the 
Midland  association,  which  existed  until 
1892,  when  it  was  divided  into  the  East 
and  West  Midland;  and  in  1689  the  London 
churches  brought  about  the  organization  of 
a  General  Assembly  of  all  the  churches  of 
their  order.  All  of  these,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  the  Somerset  association,  were 
from  the  first  delegated  bodies,  and  all  of 
them  disclaimed  the  right  of  interference 
with  the  concerns  of  the  local  churches. 
Their  declared  objects  were:  increase  of 
mutual  fraternal  knowledge  and  sympathy, 
the  giving  of  advice  and  aid  to  churches 
that  needed  either,  and  "  the  joint  carrying 
on  of  any  part  of  the  work  of  the  Lord  " — 
a  clear  indication  of  a  missionary  purpose. 

There  are  fewer  definite  facts  ascertain- 
able concerning  the  origin  of  local  associa- 
tions among  the  General  Baptists,  but  it  is 
certain  that  such  were  numerous,  and  may 
even  have  had  priority  over  those  of  the 


114  T^^  Baptists 

Particular  Baptists.  They  were  meetings 
of  looser  organization  at  first  than  those  in 
the  Particular  churches  —  mass-meetings 
held  annually,  semi-annually,  often  quar- 
terly— and  there  is  little  room  for  doubt 
that  from  these  gatherings  Fox  got  his  idea 
of  the  "  yearly  meeting  "  which  became  an 
established  feature  of  the  Friends'  polity. 
When  the  first  General  Assembly  of  this 
wing  was  held  is  likewise  uncertain,  but  it 
was  some  time  before  1671,  from  which 
year  it  was  a  well-established  institution. 
This  body,  as  we  have  already  seen,  as- 
sumed powers  not  generally  recognized 
among  Baptists.  The  theory,  as  officially 
set  forth,  was:  "  General  Councils  and  As- 
semblies, consisting  of  bishops,  elders  and 
brethren  of  the  several  churches  of  Christ, 
and  being  legally  convened  and  met  to- 
gether out  of  all  the  churches,  and  the 
churches  appearing  by  their  representatives, 
make  but  one  church,  and  have  lawful 
rights  and  suffrage  in  this  general  meeting, 


In  Great  Britain  115 

or  assembly,  to  act  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
it  being  of  divine  authority,  and  is  the  best 
means  under  i.eaven  to  preserve  unity,  to 
prevent  heresy,  and  superintendency  among 
or  in  any  congregation  whatsoever  within 
its  limits,  or  jurisdiction."  No  Baptist  as- 
sociation now  in  existence  would  claim 
such  powers,  and  no  existing  Baptist  church 
would  submit  to  such  usurpation. 

But  these  were,  after  all,  only  the  begin- 
nings of  organization.  The  day  of  larger 
enterprises  had  dawned,  and  means  were 
necessary  for  executing  the  new  plans. 
The  formation  of  the  Baptist  Home  Mission 
Society  in  1779  and  of  the  Baptist  Union  in 
1832  show  the  trend  of  events  and  the  prog- 
ress of  the  idea  of  solidarity.  These  were 
both  Particular  societies.  The  General  Bap- 
tists also  established  their  Missionary  So- 
ciety in  1816,  and  various  others  sprang 
into  existence  later,  in  response  to  special 
needs.  For  half  a  century,  at  least,  the 
tendency  in  both  wings  was   toward   the 


il6  The  Baptists 

multiplication  of  such  agencies,  but  in  the 
last  generation  the  desire  for  greater  unity 
led  to  a  gradual  consolidation.  The  nu- 
cleus for  such  aggregation  was  the  Baptist 
Union,  the  scope  of  which  was  widened  to 
include  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  in 
1890  it  became  an  incorporated  body.  In 
the  following  year  the  final  stage  of  con- 
solidation was  reached,  in  the  formal  union 
of  the  General  and  Particular  Baptist 
churches  and  societies.  Distinction  of  doc- 
trine had  practically  vanished  long  before, 
and  the  disappearance  of  distinctive  names 
and  administration  properly  and  naturally 
followed. 

This  multiplication  of  societies  is  not 
always  an  infallible  indication  of  corres- 
ponding growth,  yet  in  this  case  appear- 
ances are  not  deceptive.  In  the  first  half  of 
the  last  century,  700  new  churches  were 
constituted  by  the  Baptists  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  961  were  added  during  the 
second  half.     The  largest  progress  in  any 


.  In  Great  Britain  117 

decade  was  in  the  "seventies,"  when  216 
new  churches  were  established.  The  new 
century  began  with  over  2,700  Baptist 
churches  and  365,000  members. 

Thus  far  we  have  confined  our  attention 
exclusively  to  the  history  of  Baptists  in 
England.  This  is  indeed  by  far  the  most 
important  and  interesting  part  of  Baptist 
history,  but  there  is  something  to  be  told  of 
the  other  members  of  the  United  Kingdom 
and  of  the  larger  empire. 

There  are  traditions  in  Wales  as  in  Eng- 
land, of  ancient  Baptist  churches,  but  there 
is  no  historic  proof  that  there  was  an  earlier 
church  of  that  order  than  one  founded  at 
Swansea  in  1649.  The  rapid  growth  of 
Baptists  in  Wales  began  during  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  the  most  active  preacher 
of  their  doctrines  was  Vavasour  Powell,  the 
descendant  of  an  ancient  Welsh  family,  a 
minister  for  a  time  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, a  Puritan,  finally  a  Baptist.  Up  to 
the  Restoration,  he  is  said  to  have  estab- 


li8  The  Baptists 

lished  twenty  churches.  After  the  Act  of 
Toleration  growth  again  began,  and  since 
1810  the  progress  made  has  been  phenome- 
nal. The  century  closed  with  835  churches 
and  over  100,000  Baptists.  The  Welsh 
Baptists  are  all  of  the  Calvinistic  type,  and 
until  recent  years  have  been  strict  com- 
munionists.  Now  in  the  larger  towns  and 
in  the  churches  that  maintain  English  serv- 
ices, the  influence  of  the  English  Baptists  is 
becoming  felt,  and  churches  are  adopting 
the  practice  of  "open"  communion. 

In  Scotland  we  find  Baptists  making  no 
pretensions  to  great  antiquity.  Some  of 
that  persuasion  in  Cromwell's  army,  while 
stationed  at  Edinburgh,  are  said  to  have 
founded  a  church,  but  on  their  going  away 
it  seemingly  disappeared;  and  the  oldest 
existing  church  is  one  formed  in  Keiss,  on 
the  estate  of  Sir  William  Sinclair,  in  1750. 
A  church  was  also  established  in  Edinburgh 
in  1765  and  one  in  Glasgow  in  1768.  A 
great    impulse    was   given   to  the   Baptist 


In  Great  Britain  119 

cause  in  Scotland  by  the  life  and  labors  of 
Archibald  McLean  and  his  contemporaries, 
the  brothers  Haldane,  Robert  and  James. 
Both  the  Haldanes  were  educated  for  the 
navy,  but  retired,  Robert  inheriting  a  large 
fortune  and  devoting  himself  to  a  life  of 
good  works,  James  becoming  a  preacher  of 
the  gospel.  Both  became  Baptists  in  1808, 
and  were  distinguished  for  their  broad 
sympathies  and  unwearied  labors.  The 
Scotch  Baptists  have  some  peculiar  prac- 
tices, but  are  in  general  sympathy  with 
their  brethren  in  England. 

The  history  of  Baptists  in  Ireland  also 
begins  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth, 
not  long  prior  to  1650.  More  than  two 
centuries  and  a  half  of  effort  have  produced 
slight  numerical  results  in  this  unfruitful  soil 
— there  being  but  thirty-one  churches  in  the 
island  at  the  beginning  of  this  century.  The 
famous  chapter  on  "The  Snakes  of  Ire- 
land "  is  not  quite  paralleled,  but  almost. 
Two     associations,     a     Northern    and    a 


120  The  Baptists 

Southern,  were  formed  in   1897  by  these 
churches. 


Besides  the  two  main  wings  of  the  Eng- 
lish Baptists,  whose  history  has  thus  far 
been  recounted,  there  are  several  smaller 
parties  of  which  something  should  be  added. 

For  a  time  in  the  sixteenth  century  there 
was  a  warm  controversy  among  the  Eng- 
lish Baptists  regarding  the  propriety  or 
necessity  of  the  laying  on  of  hands  after 
baptism.  Apostolic  precedent  in  Acts  19:  6 
was  pleaded  by  some,  and  confirmation 
was  found  in  the  mention  of  the  laying  on 
of  hands  in  Heb.  6:  i,  2.  The  six  particu- 
lars of  faith  and  practice  enumerated  in  the 
latter  passage  were  taken  by  some  to  be  a 
statement  of  the  fundamentals  of  Christian- 
ity; and  some  churches  were  established  to 
promote  this  view,  which  received  the 
name  of  Six  Principle  Baptists.  In  March, 
1690,  five  London  churches  holding  these 
beliefs  formed  an  association.     At  this  time 


In  Great  Britain  121 

both  Calvinists  and  Arminians  were  united 
in  these  churches;  some  years  later,  how- 
ever, the  Calvinists  withdrew,  and  the 
remnants  were  finally  lost  among  the 
General  Baptists. 

The  Seventh-day  Baptists,  as  their  name 
implies,  separated  from  the  rest  of  their 
brethren  on  a  question  of  the  day  of  wor- 
ship. It  was  a  prevalent  notion  among  the 
English  Puritans  that  the  Fourth  Command- 
ment is  of  perpetual  obligation;  and  certain 
Baptists  drew  the  inference  that  the  change 
from  the  seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  as  a  day  of  rest  and  worship,  is  un- 
authorized by  the  Scriptures  and  therefore 
wrong.  The  first  church  of  the  order  was 
established  in  London,  in  1676,  by  the  Rev. 
Francis  Bampfield,  a  graduate  of  Oxford,  a 
prebend  in  Exeter  Cathedral,  who  lost  his 
living  at  Sherborne  under  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity, and  became  a  Dissenting  preacher, 
for  which  he  suffered  many  persecutions 
and    several    imprisonments.      Persecution 


122  The  Baptists 

did  not  cease  with  his  becoming  a  Sabba- 
tarian Baptist,  but  rather  increased,  and  he 
died,  brol^en  down  by  his  hardships  in 
prison,  a  few  years  before  the  Act  of  Toler- 
ation would  have  secured  him  from  further 
molestation.  But  one  church  now  survives, 
the  Millyard,  in  Whitechapel,  London,  and 
while  this  has  a  valuable  property,  it  has 
dwindled  to  eighteen  members. 

Besides  the  men  already  mentioned,  the 
Baptists  of  Great  Britain  produced  many 
preachers  and  laymen  of  distinction  during 
the  last  two  centuries.  John  Gill  (1697- 
1771)  was  a  learned  theologian  and  com- 
mentator, a  rigid  supra-lapsarian  Calvinist, 
to  whose  teachings  was  due  much  of  the 
paralysis  that  came  upon  the  Particular 
Baptist  churches.  His  writings,  though 
once  held  in  the  highest  esteem,  are  now 
known  even  by  name  only  to  the  curious 
scholar.  John  Rippon  (1751-1836)  was 
pastor  of  one  church  in  London  for  sixty- 
three  years,  which  became  under  his  minis- 


In  Great  Britain  123 

trations  the  largest  church  in  the  metropolis. 
He  is  best  remembered  as  the  compiler  of 
"  Rippon's  Collection,"  a  hymnal  made  for 
his  own  people,  to  which  he  contributed 
many  of  his  own  verses,  and  which  came 
into  general  use;  and  as  the  editor  of  the 
Baptist  Register,  a  miscellany  in  which 
many  valuable  biographical  and  historical 
sketches  appeared.  The  Stennett  family 
was  a  very  notable  one.  Beginning  with 
Dr.  Edward  Stennett,  a  physician  of  high 
repute  during  the  time  of  Charles  II,  and 
also  a  lay  preacher,  it  contained  three  gene- 
rations of  Seventh-day  Baptist  preachers, 
all  named  Joseph  Stennett.  The  eldest  of 
these  was  a  poet  and  hymn-writer  who 
won  much  praise  in  his  day.  Samuel 
Stennett  (1727- 1795)  a  younger  brother  of 
Joseph  the  third,  was  the  most  celebrated 
of  the  whole  family.  Though  a  Sabba- 
tarian in  principle,  he  was  pastor  of  a  Par- 
ticular church  in  London  during  all  his  ac- 
tive life.     His  scholarship  won  him  the  de- 


124  The  Baptists 

gree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Aberdeen,  in  1763.  Though  many 
of  his  writings  were  highly  esteemed  by  his 
contemporaries,  he  is  best  remembered  now 
by  his  hymns,  of  which  two  at  least  are 
found  in  all  collections:  "Majestic  sweet- 
ness sits  enthroned,"  and  "On  Jordan's 
stormy  banks  I  stand." 

A  number  of  other  hymnologists  among 
the  Baptists  may  well  be  mentioned  at  this 
point.  Miss  Anne  Steele  (1717-1778)  was 
the  daughter  of  a  Baptist  minister  in  Hamp- 
shire. She  was  an  invalid  during  the 
greater  part  of  her  life,  and  her  hours  of 
pain  were  solaced  by  the  composition  of  a 
number  of  volumes  of  verse,  from  which 
are  taken  a  large  number  of  hymns  that  are 
to  be  found  in  nearly  all  collections.  The 
best  known,  perhaps,  are:  "Father  of  all 
mercies,  in  thy  word,"  "The  Savior!  O 
what  endless  charms,"  and  "Father, 
whate'er  of  earthly  bliss."  John  Ryland 
(1753-1825)  was  the  son  of  a  distinguished 


In  Great  Britain  il^ 

father  and  a  distinguished  man  himself,  and 
from  his  works  have  been  drawn  hymns  for 
many  books.  The  hymn  that  might  dispute 
with  any  the  praise  of  being  the  most  fre- 
quently sung  of  all  sacred  songs,  "  Blest  be 
the  tie  that  binds,"  was  written  by  Rev.  John 
Fawcett  (1740-1817),  a  Baptist  preacher  for 
more  than  fifty  years  and  the  author  of 
,  many  other  verses  still  sung  in  all  Christian 
congregations.  Rev.  Benjamin  Beddome 
(17 1 7-1795)  wrote  a  whole  volume  of 
hymns,  more  than  800  in  all,  of  which  a 
dozen  or  more  are  familiar  to  every  church- 
goer. To  have  written  "Come,  thou  fount 
of  every  blessing,"  would  be  a  sure  title  to 
the  remembrance  of  many  generations  of 
Christian  people,  but  the  Rev.  Robert  Rob- 
inson (1735-1790)  also  wrote  many  other 
hymns  and  a  small  library  of  books.  To  this 
list  might  easily  be  added  the  names  of  as 
many  more,  hardly  less  distinguished,  and 
only  less  gratefully  remembered,  than  the 
above. 


126  The  Baptists 

To  return  now  to  the  Baptist  preachers 
and  writers  of  this  period,  we  find  not  a 
few,  once  highly  honored,  but  strangers  or 
nearly  so  to  the  present  generation.  Abra- 
ham Booth  (1734- 1 806)  was  at  first  a 
preacher  of  the  General  Baptists,  and  so 
ardent  an  Arminian  that  he  wrote  a  violent 
"Poem  on  Predestination,"  in  which  he 
confuted  Calvinism.  The  very  violence  of 
his  opinions  and  language  produced  a  re- 
action, and  he  afterward  wrote  a  prose 
treatise  in  defence  of  the  doctrines  he  had 
opposed,  which  he  called  "  The  Reign  of 
Grace,"  It  was  a  greatly  esteemed  work, 
as  was  also  a  controversial  book,  "  Pedo- 
baptism  Examined,"  but  both  have  long 
since  gone  into  oblivion.  Rev.  John  Foster 
( 1 770-1 843),  once  greatly  celebrated  among 
essayists,  but,  like  Hazlitt  and  Jeffery  and  a 
score  of  others,  rapidly  becoming  no  more 
than  a  name  to  most  readers  of  English 
literature,  was  also  a  Baptist  minister 
— never    so    esteemed,    however,    for    his 


In  Great  Britain  127 

power  in  the  pulpit  as  for  his  skill  with  the 
pen.  Dr.  Alexander  Carson  (i 776-1844)  is 
the  most  distinguished  man  whom  the  Bap- 
tists of  Ireland  have  produced.  He  was  a 
native  of  that  country,  was  educated  at  the 
University  of  Glasgow,  where  he  was 
graduated  with  high  honors,  and  had  before 
him  a  promising  career  as  a  scholar,  could 
he  have  remained  a  Presbyterian.  Com- 
pelled by  conscience  to  become  a  Baptist, 
he  gathered  a  church  in  his  native  land, 
which  grew  to  a  membership  of  five  hun- 
dred, while  his  writings  spread  his  fame 
abroad. 

Three  of  the  most  celebrated  preachers  of 
England  in  the  present  century  were  pastors 
of  Baptist  churches.  Robert  Hall  (1764- 
183 1)  was  educated  at  Bristol  College  and 
the  University  of  Aberdeen,  and  might  have 
won  fame  as  a  scholar  had  he  not  developed 
so  great  powers  as  a  pulpit  orator.  At 
Cambridge,  at  Leicester,  at  Bristol,  he  was 
greatly  successful  as  a  preacher, — theschol- 


128  The  Baptists 

ars,  statesmen  and  men  of  letters  of  his  day 
being  unanimous  in  his  praise.  His  style  is 
polished  and  ornate,  but  cumbrous,  and  the 
present  generation  finds  it  hard  to  compre- 
hend the  secret  of  his  wide  popularity  and 
enduring  fame.  Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon 
(1834- 1 892)  was  the  son  of  a  Congrega- 
tional preacher,  but  in  early  life  became  a 
Baptist,  and  before  his  beard  was  grown 
had  become  pastor  of  a  London  church  and 
acquired  a  metropolitan  fame  as  a  preacher. 
During  the  rest  of  his  life  he  ministered  to 
the  same  church,  which  grew  to  be  the 
largest  in  the  world  (5,000  members),  and 
engaged  in  multifarious  labors.  To  the 
power  of  the  pulpit  was  in  his  case  added 
the  power  of  the  press,  and  his  printed 
sermons  were  read  weekly  by  hundreds  of 
thousands.  Nor  did  his  work  perish  with 
him;  the  church  that  he  built  up,  the  insti- 
tutions that  he  founded,  have  continued, 
with  little  or  no  diminution  of  energy  and 
usefulness.     The  third  preacher,  Alexander 


In  Great  Britain  129 

Maclaren  (b.  1825)  is  a  graduate  of  the 
London  University,  and  after  a  pastorate  at 
Southampton  became  in  1858  pastor  of  a 
church  at  Manchester,  where  he  still  re- 
mains. Not  so  great  a  master  of  assemblies 
as  Spurgeon  in  England,  or  Beecher  in 
America,  he  has  had  no  superior  in  either 
country  in  intellectual  grip  and  spiritual 
power. 

A  long  list  of  men,  distinguished  in 
various  callings,  might  be  added — such  as 
Joseph  Angus,  D.  D.,  and  Thomas  Spencer 
Baynes,  LL,  D.,  eminent  as  educators  and 
authors;  Major-General  Havelock,  Chief 
Justice  Sir  Robert  Lush,  and  the  like.  In 
spite  of  social  disabilities  of  various  kinds — 
and  until  quite  recently,  legal  disabilities  as 
well — many  Baptists  have  risen  to  foremost 
places  and  won  the  respect  of  the  whole 
nation. 

It  is  not  easy  to  forecast  the  probable 
effect  upon  English  Baptists  of  the  recent 
movement  toward  the  federation  of  all  the 


130  The  Baptists 

dissenting  bodies.  In  connection  with  cer- 
tain other  tendencies,  it  points  in  tlie  direc- 
tion of  a  limitation  of  their  growth,  if  not 
toward  their  ultimate  extinction.  During 
the  last  century,  the  progress  of  "open" 
communion  sentiment  was  very  rapid, 
until  the  great  majority  of  English-speaking 
churches  have  adopted  this  practice.  Not 
only  so,  many  have  taken  the  next  logical 
step,  and  adopted  "open"  membership 
also;  that  is  to  say,  they  receive  to  member- 
ship any  Christians,  without  asking 
whether  they  have  been  baptized  or  not. 
From  this  to  the  dropping  of  all  denomina- 
tional distinctions  would  seem  no  long  step. 
The  federation  movement  may  or  may  not 
hasten  that  which  seems  in  any  case  to  be 
probable,  not  to  say  inevitable. 

In  the  English  dependencies  Baptists  are 
strongest  in  the  Canadas.  Soon  after  the 
capture  of  Quebec  by  the  English,  Baptist 
settlers  from  the  New  England  colonies 
began    to    establish    themselves    in    Nova 


In  Great  Britain  13 1 

Scotia,  and  from  1763  churches  were  organ- 
ized.    The   first  churches  in  the  Province 
of  Quebec  were  formed  by  Baptists  who 
crossed  the  line  from  Vermont.     In  Upper 
Canada  or  Ontario,  settlers  from  New  York 
planted    the    first    churches.     Later    there 
were   English   and   Scotch   immigrants   of 
Baptist  stock,  the  latter  being  fruits  of  the 
Haldane   work.     From  these  small  begin- 
nings,  Canadian   Baptists  have  grown,   in 
little  more  than  a  century,  to  over  a  thou- 
sand churches  and  nearly  100,000  members. 
The   forming  of    associations  began   in 
1800  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  kept  pace  with 
the   progress   of    the   churches.     The  first 
missionary  society  was  formed  in  the  same 
region  in  181 5,  and  others  followed,  but  in 
1846  all  were  united  in  the  Baptist  Conven- 
tion of  the  Maritime  Provinces.     The  other 
provinces  had  a  similar  experience,  the  first 
society  being  organized  in  1837,  from  which 
time  various  home,  foreign  and  publication 
societies  were  formed,  all  of  which  were 


132  The  Baptists 

merged  in  1888  into  the  Baptist  Convention 
of  Ontario  and  Quebec.  A  separate  Con- 
vention was  established  in  1881  for  Mani- 
toba and  the  Northwest.  Various  Boards, 
elected  by  these  Conventions,  conduct  the 
work  once  under  the  charge  of  separate 
societies. 

The  Baptists  of  Great  Britain,  having 
ample  educational  facilities  at  hand,  have 
found  it  sufficient  for  denominational  pur- 
poses to  establish  a  few  theological  schools, 
or  "colleges,"  for  the  training  of  their  min- 
isters. In  a  newer  country  like  Canada,  the 
case  was  different;  there  everything  was  to 
be  provided.  Canadian  Baptists  accord- 
ingly began  with  the  founding  of  acade- 
mies, and  as  they  increased  in  numbers  and 
wealth  they  also  established  colleges. 
These  last  were  colleges  in  the  American, 
not  the  English  sense, — schools,  that  is  to 
say,  for  advanced  instruction  in  the  arts 
and  sciences,  though  in  some  of  them  pro- 
vision was  made  for  theological  instruction 


In  Great  Britain  133 

as  well,  for  such  students  as  had  the  minis- 
try in  view.  It  was  not  until  1880  that  a 
theological  seminary  was  founded  at  To- 
ronto, to  which  later  an  arts  department  was 
added,  and  the  institution  became  known 
as  McMaster  University,  in  honor  of  its 
founder. 

The  first  Baptist  church  in  Australia  was 
constituted  at  Sidney,  N.  S.  W.,  in  1834. 
The  following  year  another  church  was 
formed  at  Melbourne,  Victoria.  It  was  not 
until  1856  that  the  work  began  in  Queens- 
land, and  in  1861  the  first  church  was  gath- 
ered in  South  Australia.  Since  these  first 
beginnings,  the  work  has  spread  to  New 
Zealand,  Tasmania  and  Western  Australia. 
At  the  end  of  little  more  than  a  half  cen- 
tury, there  are  reported  from  this  region 
2}6  churches,  with  over  19,000  members. 
As  the  total  population  is  about  4,000,000, 
this  is  still  a  very  small  proportion  of  Bap- 
tists and  leaves  abundant  opportunity  for 
growth. 


134  The  Baptists 

In  other  British  possessions — notably  in 
South  Africa  and  Jamaica — there  are  Baptist 
churches  in  a  state  more  or  less  flourishing, 
but  their  history  offers  nothing  of  special 
interest.  It  is  enough  to  say,  perhaps,  by 
way  of  summary,  that,  at  the  beginning  of 
this  century,  there  were  in  the  British  Em- 
pire over  5,000  churches  and  700,000  mem- 
bers— including  some  Indian  missions  not 
begun  or  conducted  by  Englishmen. 


CHAPTER  V 

BAPTIST  BEGINNINGS  IN  AMERICA 

Among  the  early  Puritan  settlers  of  New 
England,  there  were  a  number  who  held 
Baptist  principles,  some  of  whom  after- 
ward became  Baptists,  but  there  were  not 
enough  at  any  one  time  or  place  to  form  a 
church.  Others  there  were  whose  study  of 
the  Scriptures  was  leading  them  toward 
Baptist  views.  Among  the  latter  was 
Roger  Williams,  a  graduate  of  Cambridge, 
in  1627,  who  became  a  convert  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Separatists  and  emigrated  in 
search  of  religious  freedom.  He  imagined 
that  this  was  to  be  found  in  the  new  colony 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  but  he  landed  at 
Boston,  in  1631,  only  to  find  that  the  Puri- 
tans had  established  a  theocracy,  and  were 
no  more  disposed  than  Laud  himself,  their 
135 


136  The  Baptists 

arch-enemy  and  persecutor,  to  allow  any 
dissent  from  the  religion  established  by 
law. 

Almost  immediately,  therefore,  Williams 
found  himself  in  difficulty,  since  he  was  an 
earnest  and  conscientious  seeker  after  truth, 
a  zealous  lover  of  liberty,  and  somewhat 
contentious  withal.  He  was  by  no  means 
ready  to  exchange  one  form  of  intolerance 
for  another,  and  flatter  himself  that  he  had 
gained  anything  by  the  change.  He  was 
called  to  be  minister  at  Salem,  a  more  con- 
genial home,  as  this  colony  (like  Plymouth) 
was  composed  of  Separatists  like  himself, 
which  the  Massachusetts  Puritans  never 
were.  He  was  not  suffered  to  remain  here 
long,  however,  but  was  summoned  before 
the  General  Court  in  Boston  to  answer  for 
certain  published  opinions.  He  had  given 
mortal  offence  to  the  government  in  at  least 
two  ways:  he  had  denied  the  validity  of 
the  land  titles  of  the  colony,  and  he  had 
questioned  the  authority  of  magistrates  to 


In  America  137 

punish  "the  breach  of  the  first  table"  of 
the  law,  that  is,  religious  offences  as  dis- 
tinguished from  civil. 

This  assertion  of  the  rights  of  conscience 
was  an  unpardonable  crime  in  this  Puritan 
commonwealth.     Various  efforts  have  been 
made  in  recent  times  to  becloud  the  issue, 
and  to  make  it  appear  that  Williams  was' 
punished    for  civil   offences   merely.     His 
judges,    not   foreseeing    the    exigences   to 
which  their  later  defenders  would  be  re- 
duced, did  not  take  pains  to  disguise  their 
real  reason,  but  put  it  in  the  very  foreground 
of  the  decree  of  banishment,  which  they 
pronounced  October  8,  1635:     "Whereas, 
Mr.  Roger  Williams,  one  of  the  elders  of 
the  church  at  Salem,  hath  broached  and  di- 
vulged new  and  dangerous  opinions  against 
the  authority  of  magistrates,"  etc.     He  was 
condemned  to  be  deported  to  England  in 
the  first  ship,  but  he  evaded  the  sentence  by 
departing  hastily  from  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  court.     Making  his   way  through  the 


138  The  Baptists 

wilderness,  he  was  kindly  received  by  the 
Narragansett  Indians,  and,  purchasing  from 
them  the  land  on  which  the  city  of  Provi- 
dence now  stands,  he  founded  a  new 
colony  there.  Settlers  from  his  flock  at 
Salem,  and  others,  quickly  joined  him,  and 
the  daring  venture  was  a  success.  It  was 
established  on  the  principle  of  complete  re- 
ligious liberty,  the  settlers  entering  into  a 
compact,  in  1638,  to  obey  all  laws  made 
"for  the  public  good  of  the  body  .  .  .  only 
in  civil  things."  This  was  the  first  govern- 
ment in  the  world  to  be  built  on  the  corner- 
stone of  absolute  liberty,  to  the  point  of 
incompatibility  with  the  preservation  of 
public  order  and  private  property;  all  other 
governments  had  maintained,  in  practice  if 
not  in  theory,  that  the  majority  had  the 
right  to  restrict  and  coerce  the  minority  in 
all  that  pertains  to  religion.  This  was  a 
small  state  to  be  sure,  but  as  the  colony 
grew  the  principle  was  maintained,  and 
when  a  royal  charter  was  obtained,  in  1633, 


In  America  139 

this  became  the  fundamental  law  and  such 
it  has  ever  remained. 

Up  to  this  time  Williams  had  been  what 
we  should  now   call  a  Congregationalist. 
His  study  of  the  Scriptures,  however,  was  j 
leading  him  to  the  conclusion  that  infant 
baptism  finds  no  warrant  there,  the  only 
baptism  of  apostolic  times  being  the  bap- 
tism of  those  who  had  believed  in  Christ. 
Others  among  the  Providence  settlers  had 
come  to  the  same  conclusion,  and  about 
March,  1639,  they  were  ready  to  act  as  their 
belief  demanded.     There  was  no  minister 
other  than  Williams,  and  he  was,  according 
to  their  new   conclusion,   unbaptized   like 
the  rest  of   them.     The  only  course  that 
seemed  open  to  them   was,  therefore,  to 
originate  baptism  among  themselves.     Ac- 
cordingly, Ezekiel  Holliman,  who  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Salem  church,  baptized  Wil- 
liams,  and  he  baptized  Holliman  and  ten 
others,  thus  constituting  the  First  Baptist 
Church  of  Providence,  with  twelve  members. 


140  The  Baptists 

There  is  no  definite  mention  of  how  this 
baptism  was  performed;  whence  it  has 
been  inferred  that,  as  immersion  had  not 
yet  been  introduced  among  the  Baptists  of 
England,  it  was  probably  an  affusion.  But 
the  studies  of  Williams  may  as  easily  have 
convinced  him  that  immersion  was  the 
right  baptism  as  that  only  believers  should 
be  baptized.  And,  whereas,  in  the  case  of 
the  English  Baptists,  we  have  a  clear  and 
definite  record  of  the  introduction  of  im- 
mersion among  them,  confirmed  by  a  mul- 
titude of  other  documents,  there  is  not  only 
no  such  record  among  American  Baptists, 
but  it  should  seem  there  must  have  been,  if 
a  change  had  been  subsequently  made  from 
affusion  to  immersion.  The  strong  proba- 
bility, therefore,  amounting  under  all  the 
circumstances  to  a  moral  certainty,  is  that 
at  Providence  and  elsewhere,  immersion 
was  practiced  from  the  first. 

About  a  year  after  the  Providence  colony 
was  founded,  a  new  settlement  was  made 


In  America  141 

at  Newport    by  John  Clarke  and   others. 
Clarke  was  of  like  antecedents  with  Wil- 
liams, a  Puritan  and  a  Separatist,  and  before 
his  emigration   from   London   had  been  a 
physician    of     repute.     He     became     the 
"teacher"    of    the    Newport    settlement, 
where  another   Baptist  church  was  after- 
ward formed.     The  facts  about  the  begin- 
ning and  early  history  of  this  church  are 
very  obscure,  and  a  more  positive  statement 
than  the  above  is  unwarranted.     Our  first 
certain  knowledge  is  that  in   1648  such  a 
church    existed,    having    fifteen   members. 
But  how  long  before  this  it  was  established 
is  a  matter  of  conjecture,  not  of  knowledge. 
We  do  know,  however,  that  the  Newport 
colony  agreed  with  that  of  Providence  in 
the  matter  of   religious   liberty  for  all  its 
members. 

The  first  church  in  the  Massachusetts 
colony  was  of  Welsh  origin,  the  church  at 
Swansea,  Wales,  having  emigrated  in  a 
body   with    their    pastor,   John   Myles,   to 


142  The  Baptists 

escape  persecution.  They  settled  first  at 
Rehoboth,  in  1633,  and  in  1667  removed  to 
a  new  site,  which  they  named  Swansea,  in 
memory  of  their  old  home,  and  this  name 
it  still  bears.  In  1665  a  church  was  or- 
ganized in  Boston,  in  the  house  of  Thomas 
Goold,  who  ten  years  before  had  been 
"admonished"  for  refusing  to  present  a 
child  for  baptism.  This  church  consisted 
of  nine  members,  two  of  whom  were 
women. 

Before  this,  the  persecuting  tendencies  of 
the  Puritan  government  had  clearly  mani- 
fested themselves.  John  Clarke,  of  the 
Newport  church,  and  a  fellow-member, 
Obadiah  Holmes,  had  been  arrested  for 
holding  a  religious  service  in  a  private 
house  at  Lynn;  for  which  they  were  sen- 
tenced to  pay  heavy  fines,  in  default  of 
which  they  were  to  be  "  well  whipped." 
Clarke's  fine  was  paid  by  a  friend,  but  the 
sentence  was  carried  out  upon  Holmes,  in 
the  streets  of  Boston.     This  happened  Sep- 


In  America  143 

tember  6,  1661,  a  date  that  stands  for  the 
most  shameful,  though  not  the  most  cruel, 
act  in  the  history  of  Puritan  Massachusetts. 
Henry  Dunster,  president  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, for  his  denial  of  infant  baptism  was 
compelled  to  resign  his  office,  and  was  sub- 
jected to  repeated  censures,  and  possibly 
only  a  timely  death  saved  him  from  worse 
treatment. 

Now  a  determined  attempt  was  made  to 
destroy  this  Boston  church.  Thomas 
Goold  was  repeatedly  imprisoned  and 
treated  with  such  rigor  that  his  health  was 
broken,  and  he  died  in  1675.  Others  fared 
only  a  little  better.  When  the  little  band 
ventured  to  build  a  small  meeting-house,  in 
1678,  the  doors  were  nailed  up  by  order  of 
the  council.  This  was,  however,  the  last 
violent  proceeding  against  them — public 
opinion  in  the  colony  was  decidedly  adverse 
to  further  measures  of  the  kind.  In  1691  a 
new  charter  was  given  to  the  colony,  which 
assured  "liberty  of  conscience  to  all  Chris- 


144  The  Baptists 

tians,  except  Papists."  Nevertheless,  the 
progress  of  Baptists  long  continued  to  be 
very  slow;  down  to  the  Great  Awakening 
there  were  but  eight  churches  in  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Maine  was  at  this  time  a  part  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts colony,  and  Baptists  there  ex- 
perienced the  same  treatment  as  elsewhere 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  that  government. 
Two  settlers  at  Kittery,  having  come  to 
hold  Baptist  sentiments,  made  their  way  to 
Boston  and  were  baptized,  and  then  re- 
turned to  organize  a  church  at  their  home. 
The  little  flock  was  so  harrassed  by  perse- 
cutions, however,  that  the  entire  number, 
seventeen  in  all,  emigrated  and  settled  at 
Charleston,  S.  C,  where  in  1684  they 
formed  the  first  Baptist  church  in  the  South. 
It  was  more  than  eighty  years  later,  after 
the  close  of  the  War  of  Revolution,  that 
a  second  attempt  was  made  to  plant  a  Bap- 
tist church  in  Maine. 

The    next    region   of    New   England  in 


In  America  145" 

which  progress  was  made  was  the  colony 
of  Connecticut.  The  first  church  was  or- 
ganized in  1705,  at  Groton,  probably  by 
Baptists  from  Rhode  Island,  and  others 
sprang  up  thereafter,  at  the  rate  of  one  for 
each  decade.  Every  Baptist  was  liable  in 
this  colony  to  a  fine  of  ten  shillings  for 
every  time  he  absented  himself  from  public 
worship  or  attended  a  meeting  in  a  private 
house.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  penalty 
was  ever  enforced  with  rigor,  or  that  im- 
prisonments or  whippings  were  ever  em- 
ployed in  Connecticut  as  means  of  argu- 
ment with  these  obstinate  heretics. 

The  group  of  colonies  afterward  known 
as  the  Middle  States  were  very  different  in 
their  history  and  characteristics  from  New 
England.  The  latter  region  was  settled 
almost  exclusively  by  Englishmen,  and 
English  ideas  were  consequently  always 
dominant.  New  York  was  originally  a 
Dutch  colony,  and  has  never  wholly  lost 
the  character  impressed  upon  it  by  its  first 


146  The  Baptists 

settlers.  New  Jersey  was  a  Swedish  col- 
ony, and  then  English;  while  Pennsylvania, 
though  nominally  English,  was  from  the 
first  the  goal  of  large  numbers  of  Welsh 
and  Germans.  These  colonies  were,  there- 
fore, of  mixed  population  from  their  earliest 
years,  and  while  English  ideas  predomi- 
nated in  them  on  the  whole,  they  had  no 
exclusive  possession  of  the  field,  and  were 
subject  to  great  modifications. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  a  more  liberal 
religious  policy  governed  these  colonies, 
and  there  was  little  active  persecution  in 
them.  The  only  exception  was  in  New 
York,  and  that  was  a  short-lived  affair, 
since  its  cause  was  the  personal  character 
of  one  governor  of  the  infant  colony,  Peter 
Stuyvesant.  All  Dissenters  from  the  Re- 
formed Church  felt  the  weight  of  his  dis- 
pleasure. The  first  Baptists  were  gathered 
in  the  colony  through  the  preaching  of 
William  Wickenden,  one  of  the  elders  of 
the  Providence  church,  in  1656.     Whether 


In  America  147 

he  organized  a  church  is  not  known,  prob- 
ably not,  for  he  was  arrested  in  the  midst 
of  his  work,  thrown  into  prison  and 
then  banished.  These  and  other  perse- 
cutions were  promptly  disapproved  by 
the  Company  that  then  controlled  the 
colony. 

Probably  the  first  church  formed,  at  any 
rate  the  oldest  now  in  existence,  was  at 
Oyster  Bay,  L.  I.  About  1700  William 
Rhodes,  a  Baptist  from  one  of  the  Rhode 
Island  churches,  began  to  preach  and  make 
converts  there.  Just  when  the  church  was 
organized  we  have  no  definite  information, 
but  it  was  some  time  before  1724,  for  in 
that  year  Robert  Peeks  was  ordained  to  be  its 
pastor,  and  it  has  had  a  continuous  history 
ever  since.  A  church  was  formed  in  New 
York  city,  possibly  earlier  than  this.  Valen- 
tine Wightman,  a  pastor  at  that  time  of  the 
church  at  Groton,  Conn.,  began  to  hold 
meetings  in  the  house  of  Nicholas  Eyres,  a 
wealthy   brewer,  about    171 1.     Eyres  was 


148  The  Baptists 

himself  converted  in  these  meetings,  was 
baptized  in  17 14,  and  not  long  after  became 
minister  to  the  church  that  for  some  years 
continued  to  meet  in  his  house.  After  a 
time  they  had  a  meeting-house,  but  inter- 
nal dissensions  led  to  the  loss  of  the  prop- 
erty and  the  dissolution  of  the  church, 
about  1730. 

The  churches  now  in  existence  in  New 
York  were  of  the  Calvinistic  type  from  the 
first,  and  their  origin  is  traced  to  private 
meetings  held  from  1745  onward  in  the 
house  of  Jeremiah  Dodge,  a  ship-builder. 
The  little  congregation  gathered  here  were 
unable  to  support  a  pastor,  and  from  1753 
to  1762  they  were  members  of  a  Baptist 
church  at  Scotch  Plains,  N.  J.,  which  was 
founded  in  1747.  On  being  constituted  a 
separate  church,  they  had  as  pastor  Rev. 
John  Gano,  who  labored  with  them  for 
twenty-six  years,  and  left  them  a  vigorous 
and  growing  body.  From  this  church 
sprang  the  others  now  found  in  the  metrop- 


In  America  149 

olis,  and  many  others  in  the  surrounding 
region. 

The  first  Baptist  church  of  New  Jersey 
was  formed  at  Middletown,  in  1688.  It 
was  mostly  composed  of  men  and  women 
who  had  sought  in  this  colony  the  freedom, 
denied  them  in  New  York  and  New  Eng- 
land, to  worship  God  according  to  their 
understanding  of  the  Scriptures.  In  the 
following  year,  a  colony  that  had  been  first 
settled  at  Dover,  N.  H.,  emigrated  in  a 
body  to  New  Jersey  and  formed  the  Piscat- 
away  church.  Churches  were  soon  after- 
ward established  at  Cohansey  (1690),  Cape 
May  (1712)  and  Hopewell  (1715). 

At  the  same  time,  another  group  of 
churches  was  gathering  about  Philadelphia. 
The  first,  at  Cold  Spring,  (1684)  was  not 
long  lived,  but  a  more  permanent  beginning 
was  made  in  1688  at  Pennepek  or  Lower 
Dublin,  now  incorporated  in  the  city,  but 
then  a  little  village  some  miles  away.  A 
preaching  station  or  branch  of  this  church 


1^0  The  Baptists 

appears  to  have  been  shortly  after  established 
in  Philadelphia,  which  was  not  formally 
constituted  a  church  until  1746.  These 
churches  were  at  first  composed  about 
equally  of  Welsh,  Irish  and  English  Bap- 
tists. The  Welsh  Tract  church  was  formed 
in  1701,  in  a  settlement  that  is  now  in  the 
state  of  Delaware. 

This  group  of  churches  in  these  three 
colonies,  of  which  Philadelphia  became  the 
recognized  centre,  soon  proved  to  be  the 
most  influential,  in  fact  the  determining 
force,  in  the  history  of  American  Baptists. 
They  turned  the  course  of  development 
into  a  different  channel  from  that  which  at 
first  seemed  likely  to  be  taken.  Down  to 
the  year  1700,  it  seemed  most  probable  that 
American  Baptist  churches  would  be  mainly 
of  the  General  or  Arminian  wing.  The 
majority  of  the  New  England  churches 
were  of  that  type;  the  first  two  churches 
formed  in  New  York  were  of  the  same 
order;  nearly  half  the  New  Jersey  churches 


In  America  151 

were  Arminian  also.  But  all  the  churches 
in  and  about  Philadelphia  held  the  strongest, 
though  not  the  most  extreme  Calvinism. 
About  these  the  Calvinistic  churches  of 
New  Jersey  rallied,  and  the  result  was  that 
they  had  the  enthusiasm  and  missionary 
spirit  that  enabled  them  to  take  the  lead  and 
fix  the  type  of  Baptist  theology  for  the  en- 
suing generations. 

But  they  did  far  more  than  this.  Phila- 
delphia became  also  the  centre  of  organiza- 
tion, of  expansion,  of  propaganda.  Nearly 
all  the  denominational  institutions  that  had 
their  origin  later,  can  either  be  definitely 
traced  to  this  centre,  or  received  from  it 
their  heartiest  and  most  efficient  support. 
The  later  history,  as  it  will  be  told,  will  be 
seen  to  verify  in  detail  a  statement  that 
might  seem  to  some  rather  sweeping. 

The  first  step  taken  was  the  organizing 
of  the  Philadelphia  association.  The 
churches  in  New  Jersey  maintained  very 
close   relations  from   the  first  with  those 


152  The  Baptists 

about  Philadelphia,  and  "  general  meetings  " 
were  held  from  time  to  time  for  preaching, 
baptisms  and  the  like.  These  were  ap- 
pointed with  each  church  in  turn,  and  as 
many  members  as  possible  from  the  other 
churches  attended.  As  the  churches  in- 
creased in  members,  the  maintenance  of 
this  custom  became  increasingly  difficult, 
so  that  in  1707  the  churches  contented 
themselves  with  appointing  delegates  to  at- 
tend the  meeting.  From  this  time  on,  an 
annual  meeting  of  such  a  delegated  body 
has  always  been  held,  but  just  when  it  was 
generally  recognized  as  having  become 
what  Baptist  churches  call  an  association, 
or  received  such  a  name,  is  matter  of  much 
uncertainty.  As  this  Philadelphia  asso- 
ciation increased  in  strength,  it  attracted 
to  its  membership  Baptists  from  quite  dis- 
tant regions;  and  at  one  time  there  were 
churches  on  its  roll  as  far  North  as  Dutchess 
county.  New  York,  and  as  far  South  as 
Charleston,  S.  C.     In  time,  the  New  York,. 


In  America  153 

Carolina,  Virginia  and  New  Jersey  churches 
withdrew  and  formed  associations  in  their 
own  states.  The  New  England  churches 
also  organized  on  a  similar  plan,  and  by  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  were 
forty-eight  such  associations  among  Ameri- 
can Baptists. 

These  bodies  have  never  quite  lost  their 
early  devotional  and  evangelistic  character- 
istics, but  they  soon  took  on  another  trait 
that  became  even  more  distinctive.  They 
became  m[ssionary  societies,  and  concerned 
themselves  chiefly  with  the  planting  of  new 
churches,  and  the  aiding  of  such  as  had 
been  too  recently  established  to  have  at- 
tained capacity  for  self-support.  The  rapid 
increase  of  Baptist  churches  in  later  years 
was  due  mainly  to  this  feature  of  associa- 
tional  work.  Had  they  remained  mere  an- 
nual gatherings  for  mutual  gratulation  and 
religious  services,  they  would  have  been  a 
comparatively  meaningless  feature  of 
American  Baptist  history.     In  view  of  what 


154  '^^^  Baptists 

they  actually  became  and  accomplished, 
they  must  be  pronounced  the  main  factor 
in  denominational  progress.  The  adoption, 
in  1742  or  before,  of  the  Philadelphia  Con- 
fession, a  reissue  with  some  modifications 
of  the  Confession  published  in  1689  by  the 
English  Baptists,  marks  definitely  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Calvinistic  wing  over  the  Ar- 
minian  elements  in  the  churches. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Charleston 
church,  no  Baptist  churches  were  founded 
:  in  the  Southern  colonies  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  There  are  said  to  be  traces  of 
Baptists  in  North  Carolina,  near  the  Vir- 
ginia line,  as  early  as  1695,  but  no  church  is 
known  to  have  existed  earlier  than  1727. 
In  Virginia  some  General  Baptists  settled  as 
early  as  1714,  and  churches  began  to  multi- 
ply rapidly  in  both  these  colonies.  The 
oldest  church  in  Maryland  was  formed  in 
1772,  and  progress  there  has  never  been 
rapid. 
The  victory  of  the  Calvinistic  elements 


In  America  155 

was,  indeed,  almost  too  complete,  and  there 
was  danger  that  a  paralysis  would  attack 
these  colonial  churches,  as  complete  and 
disastrous  as  that  experienced  by  their  Eng- 
lish brethren.  From  this  they  were  for- 
tunately saved  by  the  Great  Awakening, 
which  began  as  a  local  movement  in  Massa- 
chusetts about  1734,  but  after  1740  became 
a  general  revival  of  religion  that  was  felt 
throughout  the  colonies.  The  labors  of 
Whitefield  had  a  great  effect  on  the  Baptist 
churches,  and  profoundly  modified  their 
doctrine  and  practice,  so  far  as  the  latter 
term  includes  the  beneficent  activities  of  a 
religious  body.  This  is,  on  the  whole,  the 
most  important  single  fact  in  the  history  of 
American  Christianity — in  all  the  subsequent 
history  of  all  the  denominations  its  influence 
may  be  traced.  No  religious  body  was  af- 
fected more  deeply  or  in  more  particulars, 
than  the  Baptists. 

In  New  England,  where  the  movement 
began,  the  effects  were  naturally  first  mani- 


156  The  Baptists 

fested.  In  a  century  previous,  only  eight 
Baptist  ciiurches  had  been  formed;  in  thirty- 
five  years  after  the  revival,  twenty  churches 
had  come  into  existence,  and  by  1784  the 
total  number  was  seventy-three,  with  over 
^,000  members.  Extension  of  the  Baptists 
into  the  neighboring  colonies  began  at  once. 
Churches  were  formed  in  New  Hampshire 
from  1750  onward,  and  about  1780  three 
churches  were  almost  simultaneously  estab- 
lished in  Vermont.  The  planting  of 
churches  in  Maine  began  once  more;  while 
in  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  the  prom- 
ising early  beginnings  more  than  fulfilled 
their  promise.  In  1784  the  New  England 
Baptist  churches  numbered  151,  and  their 
members  were  returned  at  4,783. 

Still  more  rapid  was  the  progress  in  the 
South.  Four  churches  in  North  Carolina, 
constituted  between  1743  and  1762,  formed 
the  Ketockton  association  in  1766.  Some 
General  Baptist  churches  in  Virginia  organ- 
ized an  association  the  previous  year,  the 


In  America  157 

Kehukee,  which  not  long  afterward 
changed  its  theological  position  and  became 
a  Calvinistic  body.  Indeed,  in  later  years  it 
joined  the  straitest  sect  of  the  Calvinists. 
Settlers  from  New  England  in  Virginia 
brought  with  them  the  "New  Light"  teach- 
ings and  methods  of  Whitetield.  A  single 
church  founded  by  them  was  the  parent  of 
forty-two  others  in  seventeen  years,  and  the 
churches  so  formed  sent  out  125  preachers  of 
the  gospel.  The  "New  Lights"  or  "Sep- 
arates "and  the  "  Regulars  "  found  a  way 
of  composing  their  differences  in  1787,  and 
were  thenceforth  called  United  Baptists. 
Some  thousands  of  them  cling  to  the  same 
name  still,  and  are  not  counted  with  the 
main  body  of  the  denomination  for  that 
reason.  In  South  Carolina  there  was  simi- 
lar progress;  the  Charleston  association  was 
formed  in  175 1,  and  the  churches  multiplied 
from  that  time  forth  with  astonishing  rapid- 
ity. 
It    might  have  been   expected  that  the 


158  The  Baptists 

Revolution  would  seriously  interfere  with 
the  progress  of  the  Baptist  churches,  and 
that  they  would  have  found  themselves  at 
the  end  of  the  struggle  greatly  disintegrated 
and  weakened.  Such  was  notably  the  case 
with  the  Church  of  England  in  the  colonies, 
and  the  Methodist  church  suffered  greatly. 
But  there  were  reasons  why  Baptists  should 
be  less  harmed  than  others:  they  had  no  in- 
ternal dissensions;  almost  to  a  man  they 
were  patriots.  In  the  other  churches,  par- 
ticularly among  their  ministers,  there  were 
many  who  sympathized  with  the  mother 
country,  and  if  they  were  not  known  as 
Tories,  they  could  not  be  active  patriots. 
Moreover,  the  war  caused  the  suspension 
of  those  persecutions  from  which  Baptists 
had  still  suffered,  particularly  in  Virginia; 
and  they  were  free,  so  far  as  their  own 
countrymen  were  concerned,  to  preach  the 
gospel  as  they  had  opportunity.  They 
suffered  inconvenience,  and  sometimes 
wrongs,  where  the  British  troops  were  in 


In  America  159 

actual  occupation:  the  church  in  New  York 
City  was  practically  disbanded  for  a  time, 
its  house  of  worship  was  used  as  a  stable 
for  British  cavalry.  Some  Baptist  meeting- 
houses in  New  Jersey,  which  was  a  con- 
stant battle-ground  for  years,  were  used  in 
a  similar  manner,  and  at  least  one  was  ma- 
liciously burned  by  the  enemy.  But  this 
was  practically  the  sum  total  of  loss  sus- 
tained, and  the  fact  seems  to  be  that,  on  the 
whole,  the  years  of  the  war  were  favorable 
to  Baptist  progress.  There  were  more 
churches  at  the  close  of  the  struggle  than  at 
the  beginning,  and  save  in  a  few  localities, 
the  older  churches  showed  increased 
strength. 

One  result  of  the  Revolution  was  the  im- 
mediate removal  of  the  disabilities  of  Bap- 
tists in  several  colonies,  and  their  ultimate 
relief  in  all.  The  spirit  of  liberty  that 
brought  about  the  struggle  could  not  fail,  in 
the  end  did  not  fail,  to  secure  religious 
liberty  equally  with  civil.     Hardly  had  the 


i6o  The  Baptists 

conflict  ended  when  Virginia  swept  from 
her  statute-book  the  last  vestige  of  religious 
inequality.  Many  of  the  new  state  consti- 
tutions secured  the  equality  of  all  religious 
beliefs  by  forbidding  special  favors  to  any. 
One  of  the  chief  criticisms  against  the 
Federal  Constitution  in  some  of  the 
states  was  that  it  was  silent  on  this 
subject,  and  the  first  amendment  made 
to  that  instrument  provided  that  no  relig- 
ious tests  or  establishments  should  ever 
be  set  up  by  Congress.  In  New  England  it 
required  another  generation  to  secure  the 
adoption  of  this  principle,  but  it  was 
already  apparent  to  the  most  careless  ob- 
server that  State  Churches  were  doomed  in 
every  state  of  the  Union. 

For  nearly  a  century  now,  the  principle 
has  been  unquestioned  in  America  that  the 
interests  of  both  Church  and  State  are  best 
secured  when  the  two  institutions  are  com- 
pletely separated.  Even  those  who  are  not 
greatly    concerned    to    preserve    religious 


In  America  161 

liberty — because  they  care  nothing  for  re- 
ligion— are  anxious  to  secularize  the  State; 
and  so  none  openly  dissent  from  the  prin- 
ciple. This  triumph  of  religious  liberty,  on 
so  large  a  scale — a  triumph  that  has  greatly 
impressed  foreign  nations,  without  having, 
as  yet,  led  them  far  in  the  direction  of 
adopting  a  like  policy — is  a  triumph  of  the 
Baptists.  For  they  were  the  first  to  advo- 
cate (during  several  generations  almost  the 
only  Christians  to  advocate)  and  the  first  to 
practice  this  truth,  now  become  a  truism. 


CHAPTER  VI 

BAPTISTS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Without  question,  the  most  important 
event  in  the  history  of  American  Baptists  in 
the  nineteenth  century  was  the  formation 
of  their  foreign  mission  society.  It  was  not 
until  the  second  decade  of  the  century  was 
well  advanced  that  this  great  forward  step 
was  taken.  In  explanation  of  this  early 
apathy,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  it 
was  not  until  the  closing  decade  of  the 
eighteenth  century  that  European  Christians, 
with  all  their  wealth  and  resources,  began  to 
awaken  to  their  duty  to  give  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that 
another  decade  was  required  to  rouse 
American  Christians,  with  their  smaller  re- 
sources and  their   more  pressing   needs  at 

home,  to  realize  that  the  great  Commission 
162 


In  the  United  States  163 

was  addressed  to  them.  It  was  a  few 
young  men,  students  at  Williams  College 
and  later  at  Andover  Theological  Seminary, 
who  were  the  means  of  stirring  the  latent 
foreign  mission  sentiment  to  life.  In  order 
to  send  out  these  young  men  as  mission- 
aries to  the  heathen — a  work  to  which  they 
believed  themselves  to  be  divinely  called — 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  was  organized  in  June, 
1 8 10.  Among  the  first  sent  out  were 
Adoniram  Judson  and  his  wife,  Ann  Hazel- 
tine  Judson,  who  were  to  labor  at  Calcutta, 
and  Luther  Rice,  who  sailed  for  the  same 
port  on  another  ship. 

Knowing  that  they  would  meet  English 
Baptist  missionaries  there,  and  anticipating 
possible  controversy,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judson 
made  a  special  study  on  the  voyage  of  the 
question  of  baptism,  from  the  Scriptures 
and  such  books  as  they  had  with  them. 
The  result  was  to  raise  grave  doubts  in  their 
minds  regarding  the  practice  in  which  as 


164  The  Baptists 

Congregationalists  they  had  been  bred. 
After  landing  they  continued  their  study, 
with  the  aid  of  other  books  procured  in 
Calcutta,  and  finally  both  came  to  the  firm 
conclusion  that  only  believers'  baptism  is 
warranted  by  the  New  Testament.  They 
were  too  brave  and  conscientious  to  hesitate 
as  to  their  action,  when  once  their  minds 
were  decided,  and  on  September  6,  1812, 
they  were  immersed  at  Calcutta  by  William 
Ward.  Shortly  after  this  Luther  Rice 
landed,  and  it  appeared  that  he  had  had  a 
similar  experience,  so  he  too  was  baptized. 
These  missionaries  had  left  home  as  Con- 
gregationalists, in  the  employ  of  a  Board 
organized  and  supported  by  Congregation- 
alist  churches.  They  had  become  Baptists, 
and  could  not  longer  expect  such  relations 
to  continue.  But  their  missionary  call  had 
not  been  revoked — that  came  from  a  higher 
source  than  their  commission  as  mission- 
aries. What  to  do,  was  the  question. 
The  English  Baptist  missionaries  came  to 


In  the  United  States  165 

Iheir  temporary  assistance,  but  it  was  re- 
solved that  Luther  Rice  should  at  once  re- 
turn to  America,  tell  what  had  happened, 
and  if  possible  induce  the  Baptist  churches 
to  undertake  the  support  of  the  Judsons. 

This  expedient  was  triumphantly  success- 
ful. Mr.  Rice  reached  Boston  in  Septem- 
ber, 1813,  and  began  to  tell  his  story.  None 
more  inspiring  could  well  be  conceived,  and 
he  was  a  man  in  every  way  fitted  to  tell  it 
with  effect.  Wherever  he  spoke,  it  was 
recognized  that  here  was  the  call  of  Provi- 
dence to  the  Baptists  of  America  to  take  up 
this  work  and  carry  it  on.  Almost  imme- 
diately the  churches  of  Boston  and  vicinity 
promised  to  be  responsible  for  the  support 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judson,  but  they  also  saw 
that  here  was  an  opportunity  to  accomplish 
much  more  than  this,  and  a  duty  also — the 
Baptist  churches  of  the  entire  land  ought  to 
be  awakened  and  interested  in  this  work. 
At  the  request  of  the  wisest  and  most  in- 
fluential  Baptists  of  New  England,  Luther 


i66  The  Baptists 

Rice  undertook  a  tour  throughout  the  coun- 
try; he  travelled  thousands  of  miles  and 
visited  all  the  principal  cities  and  towns; 
and  wherever  he  went  the  missionary  spirit 
kindled  and  burned.  Local  missionary  so- 
cieties sprang  up  everywhere,  and  at  length, 
almost  by  a  universal  and  spontaneous  de- 
sire, delegates  from  interested  churches  met 
at  Philadelphia,  in  May,  1814,  and  organized 
the  "General  Convention  of  the  Baptist 
Denomination  in  the  United  States  for  For- 
eign Missions." 

This  was  the  turning-point  in  the  history  of 
American  Baptists.  Something  was  needed 
at  just  this  juncture  to  unify  their  forces 
and  overcome  the  disintegrating  tendencies 
of  extreme  independency.  The  enthusiasm 
for  foreign  missions,  and  the  united  effort 
necessary  to  support  the  General  Conven- 
tion and  enlarge  its  sphere  of  operations, 
furnished  the  required  bond  of  union.  The 
scattered  Baptist  churches  were  no  longer 
so   many  separate   units;    they  became  a 


In  the  United  States  167 

"denomination."  Without  parting  with 
the  least  function  of  their  cherished  inde- 
pendence, these  churches  now  became  con- 
scious of  a  common  life,  of  common  inter- 
ests; and  this  new  consciousness  made 
practicable,  even  easy,  enterprises  that  be- 
fore would  have  been  considered  impossi- 
ble. What  Baptists  have  accomplished  for 
foreign  missions  has  been  considerable,  as 
will  be  told  at  length  in  the  next  chapter, 
but  the  reflex  influence  of  the  work  upon 
the  home  churches  has  been  far  greater 
than  all  that  has  been  done  abroad. 

For  a  time  the  General  Convention  under- 
took to  foster  home  as  well  as  foreign  mis- 
sions, but  there  were  difficulties  connected 
with  such  a  mingling  of  objects,  and  it  was 
finally  decided  on  all  hands  to  be  better  to 
have  a  separate  society  for  conducting  the 
home  work.  This  was,  however,  an  un- 
fortunate decision,  the  evil  consequences  of 
which  have  been  fully  appreciated  by  the 
churches  only  within  the  past  few  years, 


i68  The  Baptists 

and  indeed  are  not  yet  acknowledged  by 
all.  Still,  this  result  was  reached  in  a  most 
natural  and  inevitable  way,  as  the  end  of  a 
chain  of  circumstances  almost  too  strong  to 
be  broken;  and  if  our  fathers  made  a  mis- 
take, it  is  not  for  us  to  blame  them,  but  to 
show  ourselves  wiser,  if  we  may.  The 
formation  of  this  second  missionary  society 
came  about  in  this  way. 

With  the  gaining  of  their  independence 
and  the  coming  of  peace,  the  American 
people  entered  upon  that  era  of  prosperity 
and  progress  which  was  to  astonish  the 
world.  They  had  just  awakened  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  their  opportunity,  the  vast- 
ness  of  their  domain  was  just  coming  to  be 
understood.  The  first  decade  of  peace  saw 
a  movement  of  the  population  westward 
that  has  hardly  yet  ceased,  and  the  wilder- 
ness almost  literally  began  to  blossom  as 
the  rose.  This  was  a  movement  of  the 
greatest  import  to  Baptists,  for  they  bore  a 
prominent  part  in  the  settlement  of  the  new 


In  the  United  States  169 

regions,  and  found  their  best  opening  in  the 
new  towns  that  began  to  dot  tiie  Central 
West,  and  were  in  great  need  of  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel. 

Even  before  the  Revolution  began,  there 
were  attempts  to  plant  settlements  in  the 
central  and  western  parts  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  a  few  hardy  hunters  and 
explorers  had  found  their  way  over  the 
Alleghanies,  but  as  soon  as  the  war  ended 
the  westward  advance  began  in  earnest.  A 
settlement  made  in  Otsego  county.  New 
York,  became  the  vantage-ground  whence 
Baptists  extended  their  influence  in  all  direc- 
tions. Many  New  England  people  sought 
homes  here,  mostly  "Separates,"  or  follow- 
ers of  Whitefield,  and  these  in  large  numbers 
united  with  the  Baptist  churches  formed  in 
this  region. 

Among  the  first  settlers  of  Tennessee, 
Kentucky  and  Ohio  were  Baptist  families, 
and  the  organization  of  churches  began  at  a 
very  early  date  in  the  history  of  these  states. 


lyo  The  Baptists 

The  first  church  in  Tennessee  was  formed 
in  1765,  and  by  1790  there  were  eighteen 
churches,  with  889  members.  Such  rapid- 
ity of  growth  was  characteristic  of  the 
whole  West,  and  was  sometimes  exceeded. 
The  first  Kentucky  church,  for  example, 
dates  from  1782,  and  in  1790  there  were 
forty-two  churches  and  3,095  members. 
In  Ohio  the  first  church  was  formed  in 
1790,  and  the  first  association  in  1797. 
Baptists  from  Virginia  were  the  first  people 
to  settle  in  Illinois,  but  the  first  church  was 
constituted  in  1796. 

These  things  did  not  just  happen  so. 
This  rapid  progress  in  the  new  regions  was 
the  result  of  much  hard  work  and  well  di- 
rected. The  Baptist  people  of  that  day 
were  quick  to  see  their  opportunity,  and  as 
prompt  to  seize  it.  To  the  best  of  their 
resources,  they  provided  for  the  evangeli- 
zing of  these  new  western  settlements. 
The  churches  and  associations  in  the  older 
communities    gave    liberally    out   of    their 


In  the  United  States  171 

poverty  to  sustain  travelling  preachers — 
home  missionaries,  we  should  call  them 
now — who  labored  incessantly  and  amid 
great  privations  to  carry  the  gospel  to  these 
destitute  places.  The  pioneer  people  re- 
ceived these  ministrations,  for  the  most 
part,  with  touching  gratitude  and  eager- 
ness; converts  were  numerous;  churches 
sprang  up  as  by  magic  everywhere;  and  in 
a  surprisingly  short  time  these  churches 
called  pastors  of  their  own,  organized  as- 
sociations, and  began  in  turn  to  help  others 
more  needy  than  themselves. 

It  was  the  demand  for  this  form  of  serv- 
ice that  led  to  the  beginnings  of  organiza- 
tion for  missionary  work,  antedating  by 
some  years  the  interest  taken  in  foreign 
missions.  The  associations  were  found  to 
be  unequal  to  the  exigency;  some  larger 
body,  that  would  unite  the  energies  of  the 
churches  belonging  to  several  associations, 
was  the  first  expedient  that  was  tried. 
The  Baptists  of  Massachusetts  organized  a 


lyi  The  Baptists 

domestic  Missionary  Society  in  1802,  and 
sent  out  evangelists  who  labored  in  west- 
ern New  York  and  central  Pennsylvania. 
In  1807  the  Lake  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
was  formed  in  central  New  York,  and  con- 
ducted missionary  operations  in  the  rapidly 
settling  western  counties  of  the  state. 
Such  societies  multiplied,  and  for  a  genera- 
tion seemed  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  case; 
then  they  gave  way  to  the  various  state 
conventions  that  sprang  up  in  response  to 
the  general  desire  for  a  larger  and  more 
powerful  organization  for  strictly  domestic 
missions.  But  as  these  societies  were 
formed  within  state  lines,  and  began  to 
circumscribe  their  labors  within  the  same 
limits,  there  was  greater  need  than  ever  for 
some  provision  to  carry  on  the  work  in  the 
great  West,  and  all  the  resources  of  all  the 
churches  were  felt  to  be  not  too  large  for 
this  enterprise.  The  formation  of  the 
American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  in 
1832,  was  the   response   to  this   demand. 


In  the  United  States  173 

Its  constituency  was  all  the  Baptist  churches 
of  the  United  States,  and  its  field  the  whole 
of  North  America. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  conceive  of 
these  organizations  among  Baptists  as  iso- 
lated and  exceptional  facts;  they  were  only 
participating  in  a  general  forward  move- 
ment of  all  American  Christians.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  little  be- 
hind in  establishing  a  foreign  missionary 
society,  which  it  did  in  1819;  and  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  formed  its 
society  in  the  following  year.  There  was 
then  a  pause  for  some  years,  but  from  1836 
onward  all  the  evangelical  denominations 
hastened  to  make  permanent  provision  for 
the  doing  of  this  work.  A  similar  thing 
was  true  of  the  work  of  home  missions. 
The  Congregationalists  organized  the 
American  Home  Mission  Society  in  1826, 
and  the  Presbyterians  appointed  their  sepa- 
rate Board  for  this  work  in  1816,  while  the 
Episcopal    Church    formed    a    society   for 


174  The  Baptists 

Home  Missions  in  1821.  The  missionary 
movement  was  not  merely  general  among 
the  Christian  Churches  of  America;  it  was 
universal. 

Next  to  this  organization  for  the  work  of 
world-wide  missions,  the  most  important 
feature  of  American  religious  history  during 
the  early  part  of  the  last  century  was  the 
growth  of  Sunday-schools.  One  of  the 
first  schools  to  be  established  in  America 
for  exclusively  religious  instruction  was 
begun  by  the  First  Baptist  church  of  Phila- 
delphia in  1815.  By  1825  Sunday-schools 
were  to  be  found  in  all  the  principal  towns 
of  the  United  States,  in  connection  with 
the  churches  of  all  denominations,  and 
from  that  time  onward  the  progress  of  the 
movement  was  marvellous.  We  are  es- 
pecially concerned  to  note  only  the  effect 
of  this  new  Christian  enterprise  upon  de- 
nominational growth.  One  is  in  little 
danger  of  speaking  too  strongly  on  this 
point,  for  no  other  agency  has  ever  secured 


In  the  United  States  175 

the  formation  of  so  many  new  churches. 
Exact  statistics  are  not  attainable,  but  prob- 
ably quite  half  the  Baptist  churches  formed 
within  the  past  eighty  years  might  be 
traced  back  to  a  Sunday-school  begun  by  a 
few  enterprising  workers,  in  some  school- 
house  or  private  dwelling,  as  a  "mission." 
After  a  time  occasional  preaching  services 
were  held  at  the  same  place,  converts  were 
made,  and  in  due  time  a  church  was  organ- 
ized. 

The  new  movement  demanded  and  cre- 
ated a  literature  of  its  own,  and  this  called 
into  existence,  or  gave  new  life  to  already 
existing,  societies  of  publication.  The 
American  Sunday-school  Union,  founded 
in  1824,  and  the  American  Tract  Society, 
established  in  1825,  are  examples  of  such 
agencies,  in  which  Christians  of  various 
denominations  cooperated.  But  in  a  coun- 
try where  denominational  spirit  is  so  strong 
as  in  the  United  States,  it  was  inevitable 
that  each  of  the  stronger  religious  bodies, 


176  The  Baptists 

at  least,  should  have  means  of  their  own  for 
this  sort  of  work.  Here  again  the  Baptists 
probably  made  a  mistake  in  organizing  the 
work  of  publication  as  something  wholly 
separate  from  missions,  for  the  Christian 
press  is  a  missionary  agency  and  cannot  be 
anything  else  without  ceasing  to  be  Chris- 
tian. In  1824  a  Tract  Society  had  been 
formed  by  a  few  Baptists  at  Washington, 
which  was  soon  transferred  to  Philadelphia, 
and  in  1840  was  renamed  the  "American 
Baptist  Publication  and  Sunday-school  So- 
ciety." This  did  not  mean  that  it  then  first 
began  the  publication  of  Sunday-school 
literature,  any  more  than  the  dropping  of 
the  second  phrase  in  the  name  after  1844 
signified  cessation  of  such  publications. 
From  1840,  however,  the  issue  of  Sunday- 
school  books  and  papers  became  an  in- 
creasingly important  part  of  the  work, 
though  it  has  never  precluded  due  attention 
to  general  denominational  literature. 
Thus  fully  provided  with   organization, 


In  the  United  States  177 

the  Baptist  churches  began  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century  to  maite  extremely 
rapid  progress.  Growth  in  the  last  quarter 
of  the  preceding  century  had  been  very 
fast,  since  their  members  had  come  by  1800 
to  be  quite  a  hundred  thousand;  and  that 
rate  of  increase  was  nearly  maintained  for 
another  quarter  century  or  more.  In  that 
time  the  members  were  about  tripled;  and 
since  then  the  numbers  have  doubled  again 
in  every  quarter  century.  All  statisticians 
agree  that  the  increase  of  the  United  States 
in  population  has  been  something  unex- 
ampled in  history;  but  the  increase  of  Bap- 
tists has  been  twice  as  rapid  as  the  growth 
of  population.  As  no  considerable  part  of 
this  increase  has  been  due  to  immigration, 
and  no  large  percentage  has  been  at  the  ex- 
pense of  other  denominations,  such  growth 
means  that  the  Baptist  churches  have  been 
very  successful  in  their  work  of  evangeliza- 
tion. 
That    also    is    the   conclusion  to   which 


178  The  Baptists 

closer  study  of  the  facts  leads  one.  The 
first  half  of  the  century  was  a  time  of  fre- 
quent periodic  waves  of  religious  interest, 
or  "revivals."  These  were  peculiar  to  no 
one  denomination  or  section,  but  constitute 
a  general  phenomenon  in  the  history  of 
American  Christianity,  the  Baptists  sharing 
in  the  common  awakenings,  and  using  the 
same  methods  of  work  that  other  churches 
found  both  expedient  and  effective.  Quite 
a  number  of  the  celebrated  revival  preachers, 
or  "  evangelists,"  of  the  time  were  Baptists, 
but  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  churches  de- 
rived any  special  advantages  from  this  fact. 
The  holding  of  "  protracted  meetings  "  was 
a  nearly  universal  custom,  and  was  long 
believed  to  be  the  most  effective  means  of 
reaching  the  unconverted  and  carrying  on 
religious  work.  To  express  even  a  modest 
doubt  was  to  incur  the  imputation  of  being 
a  scoffer  and  a  foe  to  true  religion.  The 
intervals  between  these  "  revivals "  were 
supposed  to  be  devoted  to  the  indoctrination 


In  the  United  States  179 

and  training  of  the  converts,  and  to  preach- 
ing that  should  sow  the  seed  for  another 
like  harvest  in  Jue  time. 

The  frequency  and  fervor  of  such  meet- 
ings have  greatly  declined  within  the  last 
quarter-century,  and  two  quite  opposite  in- 
terpretations are  current,  each  purporting  to 
account  for  the  fact.     By  some,  apparently 
still  the  majority,  this  is  taken  as  a  symptom 
of  general  spiritual  decline,  and  such  believe 
the  only  hope  of  the  churches  to  lie  in  a  re- 
version   to    the   former   methods.     Others 
hold  that  the  day  of  "revivals"  has  gone 
never  to  return,  and  so  far  from  seeing  in 
this  an  indication  of  disease  they  believe  it 
to  be  a  symptom  of  better  spiritual  health. 
They  do  not  see  that  a  life  of  alternate  chills 
and  fever  is   better  for  a  Christian's  soul 
than  for  his  body.     More  importance  and 
value,   they  think,   should  be  attached  to 
what  are  called,  with  unconscious  dispar- 
agement,  "the  ordinary  means  of  grace," 
than  to  seasons  of  extraordinary  excitement 


i8o  The  Baptists 

and  spasmodic  activity,  as  the  saner  and 
more  promising  method  of  the  two.  Time, 
the  great  decider  of  religious  disputes,  will 
show  which  is  right. 

This  great  progress  of  the  Baptists  was 
not  accomplished  without  many  difficulties 
to  encounter  and  overcome.  Their  poverty 
was  a  serious  obstacle.  They  often  missed 
great  opportunities  from  sheer  inability  to 
meet  the  inevitable  cost  of  a  further  ad- 
vance. A  more  serious  trouble  was  the 
constant  opposition  they  experienced  from 
other  denominations.  This  was  in  the 
nature  of  things,  and  does  not  imply  any 
unchristian  spirit  on  the  part  of  opponents. 
If  Baptists  really  believe  and  practice  what 
they  profess,  they  necessarily  occupy  a  po- 
sition of  antagonism,  not  to  other  Chris- 
tians, but  to  the  teaching  and  practice  of 
other  Christians.  As  human  nature  is  con- 
stituted, theological  controversy  is  practi- 
cally impossible  without  the  rousing  of 
personal  antagonism,  and  grace  only  par- 


In  the  United  States  181 

tially  overcomes  this  infirmity.  We  are  ail 
so  prone  to  identify  ourselves  with  our 
cherished  opinions!  Accordingly,  a  Bap- 
tist church  was  not  unnaturally  looked  upon 
in  almost  every  community  as  a  sort  of 
Ishmael— its  hand  was  against  every  man, 
and  every  man's  hand  was  against  it.  Only 
those  who  have  read  the  surviving  religious 
literature  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  know  the  continuous  asperities  of 
this  inter-denominational  controversy.  The 
echoes  of  it  still  linger  in  a  few  religious 
newspapers  of  the  southwest,  but  else- 
where they  have  so  completely  died  away 
that  the  present  generation  is  hardly  aware 
that  controversy  was  once  common. 

Worse  in  their  retarding  effects  than  these 
inter-denominational  controversies  were  in- 
ternal conflicts  among  the  Baptist  churches, 
some  of  which  resulted  in  serious  schisms, 
while  all  were  distracting  and  weakening 
to  the  churches  in  the  sections  where  they 
occurred. 


i82  The  Baptists 

The  earliest  of  these  conflicts  was  pro- 
duced by  a  so-called  reformation  that  began 
to  be  preached  simultaneously  in  several 
parts  of  the  Central  West,  about  the  year 
1815.  The  leaders  in  this  movement  were 
at  first  independent,  but  after  a  time  the 
separate  groups,  finding  themselves  in 
agreement  on  essential  points,  came  to- 
gether. The  chief  men  in  this  reformation 
were  Alexander  Campbell,  Walter  Scott 
and  Barton  Stone.  All  were  of  Presby- 
terian antecedents  (Stone  perhaps  more 
properly  of  Congregational),  but  Campbell 
had  been  for  a  few  years  identified  with 
the  Baptists  of  western  Pennsylvania. 
Scott  had  been  in  the  same  region  for  a 
time,  a  teacher  of  a  school  in  Pittsburgh, 
but  his  later  labors  were  in  southern  Ohio, 
while  Stone  preached  mainly  in  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee.  All  these  contributed  about 
equally  to  the  success  of  the  movement, 
but  Campbell  by  his  pen  made  himself  the 
most  widely  known  and  became  the  chief 


In  the  United  States  183 

figure  in  thie  popular  idea,  so  that  the  com- 
mon name  of  the  new  body  was  "  Camp- 
beliites."  They  repudiate  the  name,  and 
deny  that  they  are  the  followers  of  any 
man,  preferring  to  call  themselves  Disciples 
of  Christ,  or  simply  Christians.  This  new 
movement,  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing, 
began  in  a  desire  for  the  unity  of  all  Chris- 
tians; by  the  irony  of  fate  it  has  ended  in 
the  adding  of  another  denomination  to  the 
scores  already  existing. 

All  the  churches  of  the  Central  and  South- 
ern West  felt  the  effects  of  this  attempted 
reformation,  which  set  as  its  goal  a  return- 
ing to  the  exact  order  of  things  among  the 
apostolic  churches,  and  advocated  this  idea 
with  an  unparalleled  acerbity  of  language. 
But  because  of  Campbell's  brief  connection 
with  the  Baptists,  and  because  in  some  re- 
spects the  new  reformation  agreed  with  the 
ancient  teaching  and  practice  of  Baptists,  it 
had  its  greatest  vogue  among  Baptist 
churches.     The    differences    between    the 


184  The  Baptists 

two  systems  were,  however,  more  signif- 
icant than  the  resemblances;  and,  in  par- 
ticular, the  new  teaching  seemed  utterly  to 
deny  the  fundamental  Baptist  doctrine  that 
believers  only  should  be  baptized,  by 
emptying  the  word  "  believers  "  of  all  sig- 
nificance. The  idea  was  adopted  from 
Robert  Sandeman,  that  faith  is  a  purely 
intellectual  process,  just  belief  in  the  facts 
recorded  in  the  Scriptures,  and  that  on  such 
"  faith  "  as  that  one  is  to  be  baptized.  This 
was  fundamentally  new  teaching,  as  Bap- 
tists maintained,  and  also  fundamentally 
wrong. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  Baptist 
-  churches  of  that  day  undue  stress  was  laid 
on  an  emotional  "  experience"  as  a  test  of 
regeneration,  and  that  much  mischief  was 
done  by  this  exaltation  of  the  emotional 
side  of  religion.  So  far  as  the  reformation 
was  a  protest  against  this,  it  was  justified. 
But  it  was  no  satisfactory  remedy  to  deny 
regeneration  altogether,  to  scout  everything 


In  the  United  States  185" 

of  the  kind  as  occurring  before  baptism,  to 
identify  it  practically  with  the  "  faith  "  al- 
ready described.  Still  more  objectionable 
was  the  teaching  that  in  baptism  was  re- 
ceived the  remission  of  sins,  and  that  a 
Christian  has  no  valid  assurance  that  his 
sins  are  forgiven  apart  from  baptism.  Bap- 
tists saw  in  such  teaching  a  complete  nulli- 
fying of  the  gospel,  a  return  to  the  sacra- 
mentalism  against  which  they  had  always 
vigorously  protested,  a  new  adoption  of  the 
principle  against  which  Paul  so  strenuously 
contended — salvation  by  works. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  each  party 
to  this  hot  controversy  misunderstood,  and 
by  consequence  misrepresented,  the  other's 
position,  which  greatly  intensified  the  bit- 
terness of  the  conflict.  They  were  really 
less  far  apart  than  they  seemed,  than  they 
both  thought.  But,  cherishing  such  im- 
pressions of  each  other  as  they  did,  there 
was  but  one  result  possible,  and  that  of 
course      was  —  separation.      The     Baptist 


i86  The  Baptists 

churches  withdrew  their  fellowship  from 
those  who  held  the  doctrines  of  the  refor- 
mation, and  comparative  peace  ensued. 
The  repairing  of  the  damage  so  wrought 
was,  however,  a  slow  process,  for  in  some 
regions  the  losses  had  been  heavy.  Several 
entire  associations  went  over  to  the  new 
movement,  and  churches  by  the  hundreds 
were  lost  to  the  denomination. 

This  had  been  a  western  affair  altogether 
— the  churches  east  of  the  Alleghanies  were 
scarcely  affected  by  the  reformation,  and 
only  heard  the  distant  echoes  of  the  con- 
troversy. But  they  were  by  no  means  free 
from  troubles,  especially  in  the  New  Eng- 
land and  Middle  States.  One  of  their  chief 
distractions  was  not  of  religious  or  ecclesi- 
astical origin,  but  rather  political,  and  grew 
out  of  an  agitation  concerning  Free  Ma- 
sonry, which  greatly  stirred  the  region.  A 
member  of  that  order,  named  William 
Morgan,  had  published  a  book  in  which  he 
professed  to  disclose  the  secrets  and  ritual 


In  the  United  States  187 

of  Masonry;  and,  disappearing  shortly 
afterward,  under  most  suspicious  circum- 
stances, was  generally  believed  to  have 
been  foully  dealt  with  by  members  of  the 
order.  His  abductors  and  alleged  murder- 
ers were  arrested  and  tried;  some  were 
convicted  of  minor  offences  and  lightly 
punished,  some  escaped  punishment  alto- 
gether, and  the  whole  affair  was  felt  by  a 
large  part  of  the  community  to  be  a  dis- 
graceful miscarriage  of  justice. 

For  this,  as  well  as  for  the  original  crime, 
the  order  was  held  responsible,  and  the 
opinion  was  now  widely  advocated  and 
held  that  nobody  could  be  a  good  citizen  or 
a  good  Christian  and  be  a  Mason.  The 
issue  thus  joined  was  carried  into  politics, 
and  an  anti-Masonic  party  was  formed,  that 
for  a  few  years  was  powerful  in  several  of 
the  states,  and  was  the  decisive  factor  in 
one  presidential  election.  It  was  taken  into 
the  churches,  and  had  deplorable  results. 
In  many  communities,  churches  of  all  de- 


l88  The  Baptists 

nominations  would  disfellowship  any  who 
persisted  in  retaining  their  membership  in 
the  distrusted  order,  and  this  feeling  has 
not  entirely  died  out  to  the  present  day. 
The  loss  of  members  in  the  Baptist 
churches  was  considerable,  but  much  more 
serious  was  the  loss  of  spiritual  power  con- 
sequent upon  the  prolonged  and  excited 
discussion  of  the  questions  involved. 

While  the  dissensions  over  this  matter 
were  at  their  height,  another  trouble  began 
to  vex  the  churches  of  the  same  region, 
William  Miller,  a  self-educated  Baptist  min- 
ister of  considerable  powers,  from  pro- 
longed study  of  the  Bible,  with  no  appara- 
tus but  a  concordance,  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  the  end  of  the  present  dispen- 
sation was  close  at  hand.  By  repeated 
calculations  he  satisfied  himself  that  1843 
was  the  year  of  doom,  and  in  1831  he 
began  to  make  known  his  conclusions  from 
press  and  pulpit,  and  exhort  men  to  prepare 
for  that  great  and  awful  day.     Converts  to 


In  the  United  States  189 

his  views  were  rapidly  made,  meetings 
were  held  in  churches  and  camps  to  pro- 
mulgate this  idea  of  Christ's  speedy  com- 
ing, and  powerful  revivals  of  religion 
occurred  in  many  communities.  Indeed, 
the  error  in  Miller's  teaching  would  never 
have  won  so  general  acceptance,  if  he  had 
not  been  first  of  all  a  godly  man  and  an 
effective  preacher  of  the  revivalist  type. 

The  excitement  grew  and  became  in- 
tense. Many  became  fanatical  adherents  of 
the  new  teaching.  The  day  for  the  ending 
of  all  things  came  and  went,  without  sign 
or  portent,  and  the  calculations  were  revised 
and  a  second  date  selected,  with  precisely 
the  same  result.  Now  came  the  crisis  of 
the  movement.  Many  lost  their  faith,  not| 
only  in  Miller's  teaching,  but  in  all  religion. 
He  had  fully  persuaded  them  that  the  Bible 
taught  his  doctrine,  and  their  whole  faith 
was  pinned  to  his  predictions.  His  doc- 
trine, his  predictions,  having  been  falsified 
by  the  event,  it  followed  to  them  that  the 


igo  The  Baptists 

whole  Bible  was  false  also — there  was  no 
truth  anywhere.  The  most  hopeless  of  all 
infidels  were  some  of  those  who  had  been 
the  victims  of  this  fanaticism.  Others,  on 
the  contrary,  so  far  from  being  dismayed 
by  the  failure  of  the  predictions,  held  to 
Miller's  teaching  the  more  firmly.  They 
indeed  ceased  after  a  time  to  set  dates,  but 
they  continued  to  teach  that  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  God  in  the  heavens  is  close  at 
hand,  and  is  to  be  continually  looked  for. 
Gradually  those  holding  these  views  drew 
apart  from  other  churches,  and  formed  the 
Second  Advent  body. 

But  the  most  serious,  and  the  most  gen- 
eral, of  the  controversies  that  beset  the 
Baptist  churches  was  that  which  arose  over 
slavery,  from  the  year  183 1,  when  Garrison 
began  publishing  his  "Liberator."  There 
had  always  been  discussion  of  this  ques- 
tion, but  it  had  never  been  bitter  and  sec- 
tional before  this.  The  best  men  of  the 
South  had  always  looked  forward  to  the 


In  the  United  States  191 

gradual  extinction  of  slavery,  and  some  had 
at  much  sacrifice  manumitted  their  own 
slaves.  This  intemperate  demand  for  im- 
mediate emancipation,  this  indictment  of 
slavery  as  a  sin  and  branding  of  all  slave- 
holders as  wicked,  brought  about  a  new 
state  of  public  opinion,  both  North  and 
South.  The  tendency  soon  was  for  the 
people  of  the  North  to  become  the  critics 
and  opponents  of  slavery,  and  for  the 
Southern  people  to  become  its  defenders 
and  upholders,  even  to  do  all  in  their  power 
to  extend  the  system.  The  abolitionists 
were  a  minority,  but  they  were  an  ex- 
tremely noisy,  vexatious  and  mischievous 
minority.  They  were,  moreover,  a  grow- 
ing minority,  and  that  fact  gave  the  South 
much  uneasiness  and  solidified  its  people  in 
the  defense  of  slavery. 

Inasmuch  as  this  whole  question  was 
moral  and  religious  even  more  than  politi- 
cal, it  could  not  be  kept  out  of  the  pulpits 
and  religious  literature,  and  in  a  short  time 


192  The  Baptists 

every  religious  body  in  the  land  found  itself 
seriously  divided.  The  Baptist  churches 
had  no  exceptional  problem  to  solve.  They 
shared  with  others  the  practical  difficulties 
that  always  vex  those  who  try  to  persuade 
two  to  walk  together  when  they  are  not 
agreed.  When  their  national  societies  were 
formed,  the  slavery  question,  though  it  ex- 
isted, was  causing  no  disquietude.  The 
constitutions  of  the  various  societies  there- 
fore followed  the  precedent  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  in  simply  accepting  the  exist- 
ing conditions  and  postponing  to  an  indefi- 
nite future  the  settlement  of  the  difficult 
question.  But  now  the  day  was  fast  ap- 
proaching when  a  definite  and  final  settle- 
ment must  be  had.  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
not  the  only  man  who  could  see  that  the 
nation  could  not  permanently  continue  to 
exist,  half  slave  and  half  free — the  two  sys- 
tems were  incompatible,  and  one  or  the 
other  must  prevail,  or  the  Union  must  be 
dissolved.     Some  saw  and  announced  this 


In  the  United  States  193 

principle  years  before  Lincoln  made  his 
famous  speech,  but  they  did  not  catch  the 
ear  of  the  people.  Some  began  years  be- 
fore to  make  preparation  for  the  great 
struggle  impending.  The  day  of  compro- 
mises was  fast  passing  away,  in  both  State 
and  Church;  peaceful  separation  or  armed 
conflict  must  ere  long  decide  the  question. 

With  the  Churches,  of  course,  peaceful 
separation  was  the  foregone  conclusion. 
This  came  about,  among  the  Baptists,  in 
consequence  of  the  announcement  by  the 
Foreign  Mission  Board,  in  December,  1844, 
that  they  could  not  appoint  slaveholders  as 
missionaries.  This  was  a  denial  of  their 
equal  rights  in  the  General  Convention  to 
the  Southern  churches,  which,  however 
justifiable  on  high  moral  grounds,  was  a 
distinct  violation  of  the  constitution.  They 
accordingly  withdrew  and  in  May,  1845, 
met  at  Augusta,  Ga.,  and  formed  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention.  By  means 
of  various  Boards,  the  Southern  churches 


194  The  Baptists 

conduct  all  their  general  operations  through 
this  one  society,  a  delegated  body  meeting 
annually.  The  name  of  the  old  General 
Convention  was  now  changed  to  the 
American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  and  its 
headquarters  were  fixed  at  Boston.  In  the 
same  year  the  Southern  churches  also  with- 
drew from  membership  in  the  Baptist 
Home  Mission  Society,  and  the  division  of 
the  denomination  was  complete.  This  di- 
vision has  never  been  healed,  though  the 
old  bitterness  has  passed  away,  and  there  is 
now  a  friendly  cooperation  between  North- 
ern and  Southern  Baptists.  There  is  no  im- 
mediate prospect  of  any  closer  union.  The 
country  is  so  vast,  and  the  local  interests  so 
numerous  and  difficult  to  understand,  that 
possibly  more  is  accomplished  by  the  two 
separate  organizations  than  could  be  done 
through  their  union. 

With  this  division  of  the  denominational 
forces,  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of 
American  Baptists  begins.     The  great  con- 


In  the  United  States  195 

test  over  slavery  v^ent  on,  until  it  culmi- 
nated in  the  civil  war,  and  in  the  throes  of 
that  conflict  slavery  was  destroyed.  The 
thoughts  and  resources  of  the  people  were 
mainly  absorbed,  during  these  years,  in 
this  great  political  and  military  struggle, 
and  until  victory  declared  itself  and  peace 
was  won  there  was  a  temporary  paralysis 
of  religious  activities.  This  was  especially 
true  of  the  South,  which  in  the  end  was 
exhausted  rather  than  defeated — less  true  of 
the  North,  whose  superior  resources  kept 
her  people  from  the  same  exhaustion. 
There  was  considerable  numerical  growth 
in  both  sections,  even  during  these  years  of 
strife,  and  the  Northern  missionary  enter- 
prises were  fairly  maintained.  But  it  was 
no  time  for  launching  new  ventures,  or  ex- 
perimenting with  new  policies.  It  was 
much  not  to  lose  ground  in  those  trying 
years.  This  was  the  experience,  not  of 
one,  but  of  every  denomination. 
When  the  cruel  war  was  over,  the  im- 


196  The  Baptists 

poverished  South  was  compelled  to  move 
slowly  in  reestablishing  its  religious  work, 
but  it  did  move.  The  North,  with  re- 
sources little  impaired,  if  impaired  at  all, 
was  able  to  give  its  whole  energies  to  ex- 
tending and  intensifying  its  operations. 
The  chief  characteristic  of  denominational 
life  in  the  three  decades  succeeding,  was 
the  wonderful  expansion  of  educational 
work:  the  founding  of  new  institutions, 
the  increase  of  endowments,  the  general 
growth  of  interest  as  shown  by  the  multi- 
plication of  students  in  the  schools  of  all 
grades. 

Baptists  had,  indeed,  before  this  done 
something  for  education;  they  had,  in  fact, 
considering  their  means,  been  devising 
liberal  things  for  more  than  a  century. 
While  among  the  earlier  churches  there  were 
many  who  were  indifferent  to  ministerial 
education,  some  even  hostile  to  human 
learning,  there  were  plenty  who  were 
awake  to  the  importance  of  having  a  trained 


In  the  United  States  197 

ministry,  it  was  thie  desire  for  educated 
preacliers — educated  in  surroundings  not 
iiostile  to  Baptist  principles — tiiat  led  to  the 
founding  of  the  first  schools.  The  earliest 
of  these,  Hopewell  Academy,  perished  du- 
ring the  Revolution.  Not  dismayed,  the 
men  of  light  and  leading  among  the 
churches  of  that  day  set  themselves  to  the 
work  anew.  The  zeal  of  some  ministers  of 
the  old  Philadelphia  association  led  to  the 
founding  of  the  two  oldest  Baptist  colleges: 
Brown  University  (begun  as  Rhode  Island 
college  in  1764)  and  Columbian  University 
(1821).  This  only  satisfied  in  part  the  de- 
sire for  schools  in  which  Baptist  Ministers 
could  be  trained;  for  Brown  was  prohibited 
by  charter  to  teach  theology,  and  the  theo- 
logical department  of  Columbian  speedily 
proved  a  failure.  Separate  schools  for 
theological  instruction  seemed  to  be  the 
best  practicable  solution  of  the  difficulty,  as 
other  denominations  were  discovering — 
schools    not    chartered   by  the  State,    but 


198  The  Baptists 

maintained  directly  by  the  churclies  inter- 
ested. The  first  strictly  theological  school 
of  Baptists  was  established  at  Hamilton,  N. 
Y.,  in  1817,  and  a  second  at  Newton 
Centre,  Mass.,  in  1825.  In  connection  with 
the  former,  provision  was  made  some  years 
later  for  the  instruction  of  young  men  who 
did  not  have  the  ministry  in  view,  and  out 
of  this  grew  Colgate  University;  the  latter 
has  remained  a  theological  school  ex- 
clusively. 

We  cannot  follow  the  details  of  this  ad- 
vance in  education,  which  after  1850  be- 
came much  more  rapid,  and  from  1870 
onward  has  outstripped  the  expectations  of 
the  most  sanguine.  In  the  last  ten  years 
the  chief  progress  has  been  in  the  better  en- 
dowing and  equipping  of  institutions  al- 
ready existing,  rather  than  in  the  founding 
of  new  schools.  The  matter  of  founding,  it 
is  now  plain,  has  been  fully  done,  if  not 
overdone.  We  are  coming  to  have  a  more 
adequate  sense  of  what  it  means  to  establish 


In  the  United  States  199 

a  new  institution  of  learning.  Men  who 
are  anxious  to  perpetuate  their  names  by 
the  gift  of  $100,000  to  found  a  college  may 
perhaps  be  as  numerous  as  ever,  but  those 
who  are  ready  to  help  them  gain  fame  so 
cheaply  are  becoming  fewer  every  year — 
not  less  than  a  million  is  now  regarded  as 
the  sum  necessary  for  such  a  beginning. 

At  the  opening  of  this  century  American 
Baptists  had  under  their  control  seven  theo- 
logical seminaries,  105  universities  and  col- 
leges, and  90  academies,  in  which  they 
have  invested  the  great  sum  of  144,000,000, 
not  less  than  half  of  which  is  productive 
endowment.  It  should  be  added  that  most 
of  this  endowment  is  for  the  benefit  of  the 
first  two  classes,  academies  being  as  yet 
very  indifferently  provided  for.  The  great 
bulk  of  this  property  has  been  accumulated 
in  these  last  three  decades,  for  in  1870  the 
total  valuation  of  the  property  did  not  ex- 
ceed $7,000,000.  Such  an  advance  can 
hardly  be  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  Chris- 


200  The  Baptists 

tianity.  And  during  the  same  period  the 
number  of  students  has  increased  from 
about  2,400  in  1870  to  38,000  in  1900. 

But  the  advance  in  missions  is  only  less 
remarkable  than  this  educational  expansion, 
though  the  full  telling  of  this  story  belongs 
to  the  next  chapter.  Next  to  this,  the 
most  striking  thing  in  recent  denomina- 
tional work  has  been  the  rise  and  progress 
of  the  young  people's  movement  in  the  last 
two  decades.  This  is  a  phenomenon  com- 
mon to  all  the  churches,  like  the  Sunday- 
school  work  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  cen- 
tury. A  movement  so  spontaneous  and 
general  could  be  nothing  but  the  response 
to  an  institution  that  was  felt  to  meet  a  need 
universal,  though  perhaps  not  before  under- 
stood or  acknowledged.  In  earlier  years, 
those  received  into  Baptist  churches,  at 
least,  were  mainly  adults;  a  generation  ago, 
indeed,  many  churches  would  not  receive 
into  membership  children  of  nine  or  ten 
years,    doubting    whether    they    could  be 


In  the  United  States  201 

genuinely  converted  at  so  tender  an  age. 
With  each  decade  now  the  tendency  is  for 
the  conversion  of  fewer  adults;  more  and 
more  the  converts  added  to  our  churches 
are  children  in  their  "teens,"  from  the 
Sunday-school.  What  to  do  with  these 
young  people,  how  to  instruct  them  in  the 
Scriptures,  in  the  history  and  principles  and 
work  of  the  denomination,  how  to  train 
them  for  Christian  service — this  is  the  great 
problem  that  confronts  the  average  pastor. 
The  young  people's  movement,  among 
Baptists,  at  any  rate,  is  nothing  else  than 
an  attempt  to  solve  this  problem. 

There  had  been  half-hearted  attempts  in 
this  direction — or  whole-hearted  efforts, 
perhaps,  by  a  few  pastors — before  Rev. 
Francis  E.  Clark  formed  his  Society  of 
Christian  Endeavor  at  Portland,  Me.,  in 
1881,  but  the  immediate  success  of  that 
first  society  and  the  rapid  multiplication  of 
others  of  that  type,  gave  a  great  impetus  to 
this  work  and  roused  attention  anew  to  its 


202  The  Baptists 

importance.  Some  Baptists,  however,  de- 
sired an  exclusively  denominational  society, 
like  that  which  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  established  under  the  name  of  the 
Epworth  League.  Such  a  thing  is  impossi- 
ble, in  the  nature  of  things,  among  Baptists, 
where  each  church  is  perfectly  free  to  decide 
for  itself  what  form  of  organization  its 
young  people  shall  have,  and  where  differ- 
ent ideas  on  the  question  of  organization 
obtain.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  several  differ- 
ent types  of  organization  have  been  found, 
and  are  still  found,  in  Baptist  churches,  and 
probably  no  one  of  them  will  ever  succeed 
in  getting  complete  possession  of  the  field. 
Federation  of  all  these  societies  in  one  gen- 
eral organization  known  as  the  Baptist 
Young  People's  Union  of  America  (formed 
at  Chicago  in  1891)  proved  the  best  possi- 
ble, as  it  was  also  the  only  possible,  solution 
of  all  the  difficulties.  This  Union  has  now 
adopted  the  plan  of  holding  biennial  con- 
ventions. 


In  the  United  States  203 

The  dose  of  the  nineteenth  century  found 
the  Baptists  of  the  United  States  numbering 
4,181,686  members,  in  a  population  of  74,- 
610,523 — exclusive  of  Alaska  and  our  latest 
possessions — or  one  in  about  eighteen  per- 
sons. This  includes  only  those  who  are 
commonly  intended  when  Baptists  are 
mentioned,  what  are  sometimes  called 
"regular"  Baptists.  If  we  add  the  mem- 
bers of  other  bodies  essentially  Baptist  in 
principles  and  practice,  the  proportion  is  one 
to  every  sixteen  of  the  population.  This 
takes  account  of  communicants  alone.  If 
we  reckon  members  of  Baptist  families, 
regular  attendants  at  Baptist  churches  and 
Sunday-schools,  allowing  three  such  for 
every  communicant,  then  one  person  in 
every  seven  or  eight  of  the  population  may 
be  called  in  some  sense  a  Baptist.  It  is  the 
largest  Protestant  denomination  but  one  in 
the  United  States. 

If  we  look  below  these  statistics  at  the 
more  important  things,  we  shall  discover 


204  ^^^  Baptists 

advance  in  these  also.  If  there  has  not 
been  increase  in  piety  and  zeal,  these  have 
at  least  been  well  maintained.  In  every- 
thing else  there  has  been  progress — in  in- 
telligence, in  wealth,  in  liberality — until  the 
mere  increase  in  numbers  seems  on  the 
whole  the  least  striking  feature  of  the  cen- 
tury's history. 

Of  those  bodies  essentially  Baptist,  yet 
not  included  in  the  regular  Baptist  organiza- 
tion, a  word  should  be  added. 

A  number  of  these  have  the  name  Baptist 
in  their  official  title.  Of  such  are  the  Six 
Principle  Baptists,  similar  to  the  same  de- 
nomination in  England,  who  originated  in 
Rhode  Island,  and  formed  the  earliest  Bap- 
tist association  in  New  England.  They 
came  to  be  entirely  Arminian  in  theology, 
and  besides  this  differed  from  other  Baptists 
in  their  insistence  upon  the  ceremony  of 
laying  hands  on  all  persons  immediately 
after  their  baptism.     The  Seventh-day  Bap- 


In  the  United  States  205 

lists  began  in  the  same  colony  in  1671,  and 
their  chief  distinguishing  feature  is  clearly 
implied  in  their  name.  They  have  been 
active  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  and 
means  in  the  work  of  education.  The 
German  Seventh-day  Baptists  are  peculiar 
to  Pennsylvania,  and  have  no  connection 
with  the  others.  Two  distinct  bodies  are 
known  as  Freewill  Baptists.  One  arose  in 
North  Carolina,  in  1729,  and  call  themselves 
the  Original  Freewill  Baptists.  The  other 
began  in  New  Hampshire,  in  1780,  and  have 
lately  changed  their  official  title  to  Free 
Baptists.  They  are  strongest  in  New  Eng- 
land and  the  Central  West.  A  few  of  the 
Separate  Baptist  churches  are  still  found  in 
the  South,  and  likewise  a  small  contingent 
of  General  Baptists.  About  1835  some  of 
the  Baptist  churches  of  ultra-Calvinistic 
views  separated  from  the  others  and  called 
themselves  Primitive  or  Old  School  Baptists, 
but  are  popularly  known  as  "  Hard  Shells." 
Another  extreme  Calvinistic  group  is  known 


2o6  The  Baptists 

as  Two-seed-in-the-Spirit  Baptists.     They 
are  confined  to  a  few  southern  states. 

Several  other  small  denominations  are  es- 
sentially Baptists,  but  do  not  bear  that  name 
in  any  form.  Best  known,  perhaps,  are  the 
Dunkards,  or  Tunkers,  sometimes  improp- 
erly called  by  others  German  Baptists. 
They  originated  in  Germany  and  emigrated 
to  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania,  from  17 19 
onward,  where  their  descendants  are  still 
mostly  found.  While  peculiar  in  certain  of 
their  customs — for  example,  practicing  trine 
instead  of  single  immersion,  and  the  wash- 
ing of  each  other's  feet  as  a  religious  ordi- 
nance— in  all  essential  matters  they  agree 
with  the  regular  Baptist  churches.  The 
Winebrennerians  or  Church  of  God,  begin- 
ning in  Pennsylvania  about  1825,  are  Bap- 
tist in  all  but  their  polity,  which  more  nearly 
resembles  the  Wesleyan.  The  River  Breth- 
ren, probably  an  offshoot  of  the  Mennon- 
ites,  began  in  Pennsylvania  as  a  separate 
body  about    1750.     They  closely  resemble 


In  the  United  States  207 

the  Dunkards,  with  whom  they  are  some- 
times confounded. 

Several  other  denominations — notably  the 
Adventists,  Christadelphians  and  Social 
Brethren — practice  immersion  of  believers, 
without  any  close  affinity  to  Baptists  in 
other  respects.  All  of  these  bodies  are 
small,  and  most  of  them  are  confined  to 
some  limited  area.  These  facts  concerning 
them  are  given  more  as  a  matter  of  infor- 
mation, than  because  of  any  important  bear- 
ing they  are  supposed  to  have  on  Baptist 
history,  past  or  to  come. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BAPTIST  MISSIONS 

How  the  Providence  of  God  led  the  Bap- 
tist churches  of  England  and  America  to  en- 
gage in  the  work  of  missions  has  already 
been  told,  as  part  of  the  general  history. 
In  the  space  at  command,  no  further  ac- 
count of  home  missions  is  possible;  but  the 
work  of  foreign  missions,  in  its  proportions 
and  results,  is  not  only  a  subject  that  de- 
mands separate  treatment,  but  it  resulted  in 
established  Baptists  in  other  parts  of  the 
world  than  those  yet  described. 

It  was  in  June,  1793,  that  William  Carey 
sailed  for  India,  with  John  Thomas,  a  sur- 
geon who  had  previously  been  in  that  coun- 
try and  therefore  knew  something  of  the 
people  and  their  language.     They  probably 

anticipated  opposition  and  possible  perse- 
208 


Baptist  Missions  2og 

cution  from  the  heathen;  what  they  could 
not  reasonably  have  expected  was  that  their 
bitterest  opposition  would  come  from  Eng- 
lishmen who  at  least  called  themselves 
Christians.  But  so  it  was.  The  British 
East  India  Company  was  fully  persuaded 
that  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  would  make 
trouble  among  the  people  of  India,  and 
cause  a  revolt  against  the  English  power. 
This  fear  of  a  revolt  was  ever  before  British 
officialdom,  and  not  without  reason,  as  the 
event  proved.  But  when  the  uprising 
came,  in  due  time,  it  was  plainly  not  caused 
by  Christian  missions;  on  the  contrary, 
wherever  Christianity  had  really  penetrated 
and  got  a  foothold,  the  natives  remained 
quiet.  It  became  plain,  even  to  the  British 
official,  as  Constantine  had  seen  centuries 
before,  that  the  Christian  religion  is  the 
strongest  of  all  conservative  forces,  the  best 
ally  of  governments  in  preserving  order,  and 
a  thing  by  all  means  to  be  encouraged  in- 
stead of  repressed. 


210  The  Baptists 

But  at  first  Carey  and  his  followers  were 
forbidden  to  remain  and  preach  in  the  Eng- 
lish possessions.  They  withdrew  to  the 
Danish  territory,  and  established  themselves 
at  Serampore.  Here,  after  a  little,  a  mis- 
sionary press  was  set  up,  and  Carey  began 
his  great  work  of  translating  and  printing 
the  Scriptures  in  the  various  languages  and 
dialects  of  India.  Before  leaving  England, 
he  had  shown  himself  to  be  possessed  of  a 
marvellous  faculty  for  the  acquisition  of 
languages.  Without  instruction,  while  la- 
boring ill  his  cobbler's  bench,  he  had  learned 
Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  French  and  Dutch. 
Doubtless  he  was  not  a  finished  scholar  in 
these  languages,  according  to  the  standards 
of  our  colleges,  but  he  could  do  what  none 
of  our  college  graduates  to-day  can  do — 
read  easily  books  in  all  these  languages,  and 
write  in  them  fluently.  That  was  how 
languages  were  learned  once;  now  a  student 
spends  from  seven  to  ten  years  in  gerund- 
grinding,  and  at  their  close  is  still  tied  to  his 


Baptist  Missions  2 1 1 

dictionary  and  can  read  nothing,  though  he 
can  laboriously  translate,  say,  a  page  an 
hour  into  bad  English.  Carey  learned  the 
languages  of  the  Orient  as  he  had  learned 
those  of  the  West— mastered  them,  that  is 
to  say,  and  became  one  of  the  greatest  lin- 
guists of  his  age,  a  man  recognized  by  the 
learned  men  of  Europe  as  an  Oriental  scholar 
of  the  first  rank.  Titles  and  honors  were 
showered  upon  him,  and  were  worn  with  a 
modesty  as  great  as  his  learning. 

His  achievements  would  be  incredible,  if 
they  were  not  so  perfectly  attested  by  docu- 
mentary evidence  that  cannot  be  gainsaid. 
In  his  work  of  translation  he  had  some  as- 
sistance, but  he  supervised  the  whole,  re- 
vised the  contributions  of  others,  and  saw 
the  whole  through  the  press.  In  the  thirty 
years  that  he  thus  labored,  he  and  his  fellow- 
workers  gave  the  printed  gospel  to  a  third 
of  the  people  then  living  in  the  world. 
From  the  Serampore  press  212,000  copies 
of  the  Scriptures   were  issued  before  his 


212  The  Baptists 

death,  in  forty  different  languages  and 
dialects,  spoken  by  330,000,000  people. 
There  is  no  parallel  to  this  great  work  in 
the  history  of  Christendom.  It  was  more- 
over, no  crude  and  hasty  work,  that  had 
soon  to  be  done  over.  Those  versions  still 
hold  the  field  in  India,  in  some  cases  un- 
altered, in  others  with  such  revisions  as 
have  been  given  to  our  own  English  ver- 
sion,— revisions  that  have  made  the  text  a 
more  accurate  rendering,  without  altering 
its  essential  nature. 

For  some  time  these  Baptist  missionaries 
were  aided  in  the  printing  of  these  versions 
by  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 
This  society  was  formed  in  1804  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hughes,  a  Baptist 
minister  and  its  first  secretary;  and  some 
ten  or  more  different  denominations  united 
in  organizing  and  supporting  it.  In  1835 
objection  was  made  to  a  proposed  grant 
for  the  printing  of  a  revision  of  Carey's 
Bengali  Bible,  unless  "  the  Greek  terms  re- 


Baptist  Missions  213 

lating  to  baptism  be  rendered,  either  accord- 
ing to  the  principle  adopted  by  the  trans- 
lators of  the  authorized  English  version,  by 
a  word  derived  from  the  original,  or  by 
such  terms  as  may  be  considered  unobjec- 
tionable by  other  denominations  composing 
the  Bible  Society."  The  missionaries  found 
themselves  unable  to  accept  this  alternative, 
either  not  to  translate  some  words,  or  to 
mistranslate  them  in  order  that  some  might 
be  better  pleased.  It  was  pointed  out  that 
this  was  laying  down  an  entirely  new  rule 
by  the  society,  that  other  versions  had  been 
printed  by  its  aid  in  which  bapti^o  and  its 
cognates  were  rendered  by  vernacular 
words  signifying  to  dip  or  immerse.  All 
was  to  no  purpose,  and  aid  for  printing  this 
version  was  finally  refused.  The  English 
Baptists  therefore  formed  the  Bible  Transla- 
tion Society,  in  1840,  to  encourage  the  pro- 
duction and  circulation  of  faithful  transla- 
tions of  the  Scriptures  into  foreign  tongues. 
This  society  is  still  in  existence,  and  in  sixty 


214  The  Baptists 

years  it  has  printed  and  distributed  over  six 
million  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  at  a  cost  of 
$1,500,000.  It  has  an  annual  income  of 
about  ^^1,500, 

The  mission  of  Carey,  thus  begun  in 
Bengal,  has  been  continued  to  the  present 
time.  Even  before  his  death  there  was  a 
complete  cessation  of  official  opposition  to 
the  work,  and  in  later  years  it  has  been 
quietly  aided  in  many  ways  by  British  civil 
servants  in  India.  The  mission  has  been 
extended  into  Northern  India  and  Orissa. 
In  all,  178  stations  are  now  occupied,  and 
the  native  churches  contain  over  7,000  mem- 
bers. Besides  this  mission,  one  has  been 
established  in  Ceylon,  where  eighty-one 
stations  are  maintained;  another  with  346 
stations  is  now  carried  on  in  China,  and 
there  is  a  mission  on  the  Congo  in  Africa, 
with  fifty-five  stations.  The  society  raises 
and  expends  about  ;;£"ioo,ooo  annually. 

With  the  decision  of  American  Baptists 
to  undertake  the  support  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 


Baptist  Missions  215 

Judson,  as  already  related,  begins  the  his- 
tory of  their  foreign  missions.  Before  they 
could  learn  of  this  decision,  the  Judsons  were 
compelled  by  the  hostility  of  the  East  India 
Company  to  leave  Calcutta,  and  decided  to 
begin  a  mission  in  Burma,  where  they 
would  build  on  no  other  man's  foundations, 
and  would  be  without  the  English  sphere 
of  influence.  They  landed  at  Rangoon 
July  13,  1813,  and  here  they  spent  two  lone- 
some and  laborious  years,  mostly  given  to 
acquiring  the  language,  before  they  learned 
what  the  Baptists  of  the  United  States  had 
done.  Their  situation  was  one  of  great 
peril,  for  from  the  first  they  were  looked 
upon  with  much  suspicion  as  possible  em- 
issaries of  the  English,  who  were  believed 
to  have  designs  upon  Burma.  The  progress 
of  the  work  was  slow — it  was  not  until 
after  six  years  of  patient  effort  that  the  first 
convert  was  baptized — and  a  large  part  of 
Judson's  time  was  given  to  a  translation  of 
the    gospels    into    Burmese.      When    war 


2i6  The  Baptists 

finally  broke  out  between  Burma  and  the 
English,  the  missionary  suffered  a  prolonged 
and  painful  imprisonment — not  so  much  for 
religion's  sake,  as  on  suspicion  still  of  being 
an  English  spy.  As  the  country  came  more 
under  English  influence,  obstacles  to  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  vanished.  Judson 
completed  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  and 
until  very  recently  this  was  the  sole  version 
of  the  Scriptures  circulated  among  the  Bur- 
mese. In  a  few  years  other  missionaries 
arrived  on  the  field,  and  the  Burman  mission 
began  to  flourish. 

It  was  soon  discovered  that  among  the 
Burmese  another  people  were  living,  of 
very  different  language  and  characteristics, 
the  Karens.  A  mission  to  them  was  begun 
at  Tavoy  in  1828,  by  Rev.  George  Dana 
Boardman,  and  they  proved  to  be  more 
ready  to  receive  the  gospel  than  the  Bur- 
mese— indeed,  among  them  some  of  the 
chief  missionary  triumphs  of  the  century 
were  won.     They  had  a  tradition  that  white 


Baptist  Missions  217 

men  would  some  day  come  and  bring  back 
their  lost  sacred  books  and  teach  them  the 
true  religion,  and  the  coming  of  the  mis- 
sionaries was  taken  as  a  fulfilment  of  this 
hope.  The  conversion  of  Ko-tha-byu,  the 
"apostle  to  the  Karens "  did  much  to  hasten 
the  progress  of  Christianity  among  them, 
and  until  recent  years,  the  Karen  mission 
was  the  most  fruitful  field  of  all'  Asiatic 
missions. 

There  was  now  a  considerable  enlarging 
of  operations.  The  General  Convention  was 
well  established  in  the  confidence  and  affec- 
tion of  the  churches  and  the  zeal  for  mis- 
sions had  become  general.  At  the  meeting 
in  1835  the  board  was  instructed  to  estab- 
lish missions  in  every  unoccupied  place, 
where  there  was  a  reasonable  prospect  of 
success.  Two  years  before  this  a  move- 
ment toward  a  mission  to  the  Chinese  had 
been  begun  by  the  sending  of  a  single  mis- 
sionary to  Bankok,  Siam.  Now  this  mis- 
sion was  extended  to  China  proper,  begin- 


2i8  The  Baptists 

ning  with  Hong  Kong,  in  1842,  and  going 
on  to  other  seaport  towns,  as  they  were 
gradually  opened  by  treaty  to  foreign  resi- 
dents. This  was  a  slow  process,  however, 
and  it  was  long  before  it  was  considered 
possible  by  any  to  give  the  gospel  to  the 
inland  towns. 

In  pursuance  of  the  same  policy  a  mission 
was  begun  among  the  Telugus,  a  people 
then  found  exclusively  in  the  southern  part 
of  Hindustan.  Here  there  was  for  a  long 
time  seemingly  no  success  nor  prospect  of 
success.  No  mission  was  ever  begun  and 
carried  on  for  a  full  generation  with  less 
outward  encouragement,  but  the  mission- 
aries never  lost  heart,  nor  faltered  in  their 
belief  that  a  great  blessing  was  yet  in  store 
for  the  Telugus.  The  people  at  home  came 
to  know  this  as  the  "  Lone  Star  "  mission, 
and  there  were  repeated  proposals  that  it  be 
abandoned.  In  1853  and  again  in  1853,  at 
the  annual  meetings,  strenuous  efforts  were 
made    to   procure  the  withdrawal   of  the 


Baptist  Missions  219 

missionaries  and  the  giving  up  of  this  field 
a.  hopeless.  But  efforts  equally  strenuous 
were  made  in  behalf  of  the  mission,  it  was 
reinforced,  and  for  another  twenty  years 
the  discouraging  struggle  went  on. 

Then,  all  at  once,  the  fields  were  found 
to  be  white  unto  harvest,  and  nothing  re- 
mained but  to  put  in  the  sickle.     There  had 
been  a  long  and  severe  famine  and  the  mis- 
sionaries had  been  able  to  provide  relief  for 
many  who  would  otherwise  have  starved, 
through    undertaking   government  works. 
It  was  feared  that  the  conversions  were  not 
genuine,  and  hence  unusual  care  was  em- 
ployed in  examining  and  testing  those  who 
professed   themselves  to  be  followers  of 
Jesus.     In  a  single  day  in   1878.  the  mis- 
sionaries   baptized    2,2^2    converts,     and 
within    the    year   the  number  swelled  to 
nearly  10,000-a  small  part  of  those  who 
had  presented  themselves.     The  genuine- 
ness of  their  profession  of  faith  was  after- 
ward   shown    by  the    great    majority   of 


220  The  Baptists 

these,  by  their  consistent  Christian  walk. 
Ever  since,  this  has  continued  to  be  prob- 
ably the  most  fruitful  mission  field  in  the 
world,  the  churches  there  now  having  a 
membership  of  over  55,000. 

A  mission  to  Assam  was  also  begun  in 
1836,  which  was  later  extended  from  the 
Assamese  proper  to  the  hill  tribes,  the 
Nagas  and  Garos.  The  work  of  this  mis- 
sion has  had  little  of  the  romantic  or  sensa- 
tional, but  it  has  been  steady  in  its  progress. 
Now  300  mission  stations  are  occupied,  and 
the  native  churches  have  over  6,000  mem- 
bers. 

Besides  certain  European  missions,  to  be 
mentioned  later,  these  were  the  chief  enter- 
prises of  the  General  Convention  down  to 
the  division  of  the  denomination.  A  mis- 
sion was  begun  in  Liberia  in  1820,  to  be 
sure,  but  it  was  never  vigorously  prose- 
cuted, and  after  the  civil  war  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Southern  Convention.  Mis- 
sionary  operations   of    some  extent   were 


Baptist  Missions  221 

carried  on  also  among  the  various  Indian 
tribes  of  our  own  country,  nearly  a  score  in 
all,  and  with  considerable  success  among 
the  Cherokees  and  Shawanoes,  nearly  2,000 
converts  having  been  baptized  in  the  two 
tribes.  This  was,  however,  home  missions 
rather  than  foreign,  and  the  work  was  at 
length  transferred  to  the  Baptist  Home 
Mission  Society,  whose  work  among  the 
Indians  in  recent  years  has  been  most  suc- 
cessful. 

Before  turning  to  the  history  of  Baptist 
missions  after  the  great  schism  of  1845,  one 
episode  growing  out  of  the  labors  of  this 
period  should  be  related.  In  every  new 
mission,  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  im- 
portant features  of  the  work  has  been  to 
give  the  Scriptures  to  the  people  in  their 
own  tongue.  Often  this  has  involved  re- 
ducing a  language  to  writing  for  the  first 
time,  the  invention  of  an  alphabet,  the  cast- 
ing of  types,  and  the  like.  Judson  was 
obliged  not  only  to  make  a  translation,  but 


222  The  Baptists 

a  grammar  of  the  Burmese  language,  and 
then  a  dictionary;  and  then  to  turn  from 
these  philological  labors  to  the  work  of  a 
practical  printer.  He  had  to  set  up  a  press, 
and  supervise  the  publication  of  his  Bible. 
This  he  did  at  Moulmein,  and  in  later  years 
the  press  was  transferred  to  Rangoon, 
where  it  has  grown  from  a  little  hand-press 
to  a  large  printing  establishment,  with  a 
plant  estimated  to  be  worth  1 100,000, 
where  all  the  Baptist  missionary  printing  is 
done.  A  successful  missionary  must  often 
be  not  only  a  preacher,  but  a  good  me- 
chanic or  farmer  or  man  of  affairs.  It  is 
not  the  men  who  have  failed  in  everything 
at  home  who  can  be  safely  sent  to  the 
foreign  field. 

In  the  printing  and  circulating  of  these 
versions  the  missionaries  were  for  a  time 
aided  by  the  American  Bible  Society, 
formed  in  New  York  in  1816,  by  represent- 
atives of  various  denominations,  including 
Baptists,   for    "the   dissemination  of   the 


Baptist  Missions  223 

Scriptures  in  the  received  versions  where 
they  exist,  and  in  the  most  faithful  where 
they  are  required."  In  1835  a  question 
similar  to  that  already  noted  in  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  society  was  raised  in  this 
body  also:  objection  was  made  to  Judson's 
version  and  others  on  the  ground  that  they 
translated  bapii'io  and  its  cognates  by  ver- 
nacular words  signifying  to  dip  or  im- 
merse; and  for  the  future  aid  was  refused 
to  missionary  versions,  unless  they  should 
conform  in  the  principles  of  their  transla- 
tion to  the  common  English  version — that 
is  transfer,  instead  of  translate,  words  likely 
to  cause  controversy. 

With  this  rule,  of  course.  Baptists  could 
not  comply,  nor  could  they  with  self-re- 
spect continue  to  cooperate  with  a  society 
that  subjected  them  to  this  exclusive 
rule.  In  April,  1837,  therefore,  a  conven- 
tion held  at  Philadelphia  organized  the 
American  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  which 
proceeded  to   print  and  circulate  the  ver- 


224  The  Baptists 

sions  condemned  by  the  American   Bible 
Society. 

Had  this  ended  the  matter,  there  would 
have  been  few  or  no  evil  results.  But 
some  influential  Baptists  desired  an  English 
version  of  the  Scriptures,  in  which  every 
word  should  be  faithfully  rendered  into 
Enghsh  as  now  spoken,  while  others  were 
strongly  opposed  to  any  revision  of  the 
King  James'  version,  by  a  single  denomina- 
tion at  all  events.  In  June  1850,  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Union  was  accordingly  formed, 
"to  procure  and  circulate  the  most  faithful 
versions  of  the  Scriptures  in  all  languages 
throughout  the  world."  A  number  of 
translations  into  foreign  languages  were 
printed  and  circulated  by  this  society,  but 
its  English  version  is  that  by  which  its 
labors  are  chiefly  known.  Sharp  contro- 
versies ensued  and  were  long  continued 
over  the  Bible  work  of  the  denomination, 
and  they  were  not  settled  until  a  much  later 
time.     In  May,   1883,  a  convention  repre- 


Baptist  Missions  225 

senting  the  whole  denomination  met  at 
Saratoga,  and  decided  that  thenceforth  the 
Bible  work  for  the  foreign  field  should  be 
committed  to  the  Missionary  Union,  and 
that  for  the  home  field  to  the  Publication 
Society.  This  settlement  gave  general  sat- 
isfaction, and  has  never  since  been  ques- 
tioned. 

After  the  division  of  the  denomination, 
the  Northern  Baptists  did  not  for  some  time 
undertake  any  new  missions,  but  devoted 
themselves  to  the  strengthening  and  enlarg- 
ing of  work  already  undertaken.  This  was 
especially  true  of  the  China  mission,  which 
was  now  greatly  extended,  though  for 
many  years  the  returns  were  discouragingly 
meagre.  When  new  fields  were  occupied 
it  was  in  response  to  unmistakable  leadings 
of  Providence.  Thus,  in  1872,  a  mission  in 
Japan,  begun  some  years  before  by  the 
American  Baptist  Free  Mission  Society,  was 
offered  to  the  Missionary  Union  and  ac- 
cepted;  and   since  that  time  it  has  been 


226  The  Baptist 

pushed  with  great  vigor.  Later,  in  1883,  a 
mission  tliat  had  been  carried  on  for  six 
years  on  tlie  Congo  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grat- 
tan  Guinness,  of  London,  was  also  offered 
to  the  Missionary  Union,  and  accepted  the 
following  year.  There  were  already  seven 
stations,  a  staff  of  twenty-six  workers,  a 
small  steamer  and  other  valuable  missionary 
property.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but 
vigorously  prosecute  the  work  so  well  be- 
gun. In  1886  a  remarkable  work  began 
among  the  negroes  and  conversions  mul- 
tiplied, until  a  thousand  or  more  had  been 
baptized. 

The  great  advance  in  all  the  missions  is 
only  faintly  indicated  by  a  few  figures.  In 
1850,  five  years  after  the  division,  there 
were  sixty-nine  churches  in  the  Asiatic 
missions,  with  7,521  members.  In  1900 
there  were  844  churches  and  125,929  mem- 
bers. The  African  mission  adds  to  these 
twelve  churches  and  1,925  members.  The 
annual   contributions  of  the   churches   for 


Baptist  Missions  227 

foreign     missions     have     advanced    from 
$87037  i"  ^850  to  $626,844  in  1900. 

The  Souther;!  Baptists  found  themselves, 
after  the  division,  with  no  missions  at  all — 
they  had  abandoned  their  common  owner- 
ship in  what  had  hitherto  been  accomplished. 
They  began  in  Southern  China  at  once,  with 
the  main  station  at  Canton,  and  as  speedily 
as  practicable  extended  their  work  to  Cen- 
tral and  Northern  China.  A  mission  was 
also  begun  in  Liberia  in  1846,  and  three 
years  later  the  principal  African  mission  at 
Yoruba  was  begun.  No  farther  operations 
were  attempted  until  after  the  civil  war, 
which  brought  all  work  to  a  standstill  for  a 
decade;  but  in  1870  a  mission  was  begun  in 
Italy,  which  has  been  fairly  successful.  A 
Baptist  Union  was  formed  in  1883,  which 
now  reports  fifty  churches  and  over  1,500 
members.  Nearly  half  these  results  are 
due,  however,  to  the  aid  of  the  English 
Baptist  Missionary  Society.  In  1879  the 
Convention  began  a  mission  to  Brazil,  and 


228  The  Baptists 

in  1889  a  mission  was  initiated  in  Japan. 
The  annual  expenditures  in  these  various 
missions  are  now  over  $200,000. 

Missions  were  begun  in  Europe  with  the 
opening  of  a  Baptist  chapel  in  Paris,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  General  Convention,  in 
1832.  In  1836  a  mission  was  begun  in 
Greece,  and  in  1870  it  was  attempted  to 
establish  one  in  Spain.  Of  these  the  French 
mission  has  been  the  only  one  to  approach 
success — the  work  in  Greece  was  long  ago 
abandoned,  while  that  in  Spain  has  for 
some  years  been  conducted  by  native  pas- 
tors exclusively,  and  but  seven  small 
churches  exist  as  a  result  of  all  that  has 
been  done.  In  France,  however,  there  has 
been  an  encouraging  growth,  particularly 
during  the  past  twenty  years.  The  fifty- 
two  churches  now  existing  are  found  in 
many  different  departments,  though  about 
one-fourth  of  them  are  in  and  about  Paris; 
and  there  are  2,300  members  enrolled  in 
twenty  of  these,  the  others  not  reporting. 


Baptist  Missions  229 

Since  1856  there  have  been  no  American 
missionaries  in  France.  The  greatest  lack 
of  the  churches  is  an  educated  ministry. 
This  need  has  been  in  part  supplied  in  past 
years  by  American  aid,  but  until  it  is  ade- 
quately met  rapid  progress  is  not  to  be 
expected. 

There  have  been  several  other  exceedingly 
interesting  Baptist  movements  in  Europe, 
which  can  be  called  Baptist  missions  only  in 
a  liberal  extension  of  that  term.  The  first 
of  these  began  in  Germany,  through  the 
conversion  to  Baptist  views,  by  the  inde- 
pendent study  of  the  Scriptures,  of  Johann 
Gerhardt  Oncken,  at  that  time  a  colporteur 
and  missionary  of  the  British  Continental 
Society.  He  was  baptized  in  April,  1834, 
with  six  other  believers  at  Hamburg,  by 
Rev.  Barnas  Sears,  an  American  Baptist  then 
pursuing  theological  studies  in  Germany, 
and  so  the  first  German  Baptist  church  was 
constituted.  The  General  Convention,  on 
learning  these  facts,  appointed  Oncken  a 


230  The  Baptists 

missionary,  but  no  Americans  were  sent  to 
that  field.  Tiie  work  made  rapid  progress, 
in  spite  of  many  persecutions,  and  in  a  few 
years  Baptist  churches  were  found  in  all  the 
principal  towns  of  Germany.  Associations 
were  formed,  and  in  1849  the  German  Bap- 
tist Union  was  organized,  with  which  are 
now  affiliated  eight  associations,  165 
churches  and  nearly  30,000  members  in 
Germany  alone.  The  associations  meet 
annually,  but  the  Union  only  once  in  three 
years.  Three  Commissions  or  Boards  con- 
duct the  work:  Publications,  School  and 
Finance.  The  Publication  Board  has  charge 
of  a  business  founded  by  Oncken  in  1828, 
for  many  years  carried  on  at  Hamburg,  but 
now  established  at  Cassel.  Many  books 
are  published,  and  several  papers,  including 
the  Wahrheits:{euge,  the  organ  of  the  de- 
nomination. The  School  Board  supervise 
the  Theological  Seminary  at  Hamburg, 
founded  in  1880,  in  which  about  thirty  stu- 
dents each  year  are  preparing  for  the  ministry. 


Baptist  Missions  231 

Very  early  in  their  history  the  German 
churches  began  missions  to  the  surrounding 
countries,  and  there  are  now  in  consequence 
connected  with  the  German  Union  Baptist 
churches  in  Austria-Hungary,  the  Nether- 
lands, Switzerland,  Roumania  and  Bulgaria, 
that  have  over  10,000  members.  Besides 
these,  missions  have  been  maintained  in 
Russia  and  Denmark.  The  Denmark  Bap- 
tists have  now  a  Union  of  their  own,  and 
have  grown  to  twenty-eight  churches  and 
nearly  4,000  members.  There  is  also  a 
separate  Russian  Baptist  Union,  with  five 
associations;  and  there  are  reported  from 
that  country  122  churches,  with  nearly 
22,000  members.  The  Baptists  of  Russia 
have  suffered  greatly  from  the  determination 
of  the  government  to  suppress  all  sects,  and 
many  of  their  pastors  have  been  exiled  to 
Siberia — sometimes,  it  is  said,  accompanied 
by  the  whole  church.  Nor  is  there  any 
sign  at  present  of  a  more  tolerant  policy. 
That  there  should  be  any  growth  under  such 


232  The  Baptists 

circumstances  is  surely  a  most  remarkable 
fact. 

The  beginning  of  Baptist  churches  in 
Sweden  is  due  to  the  conversion  and  bap- 
tism of  two  Swedish  sailors.  One,  Gustaf 
W.  Schroeder,  was  baptized  in  New  York, 
in  November,  1844,  and  Frederick  O.  Nils- 
son  was  baptized  in  Hamburg  by  Oncken 
in  August,  1847.  Nilsson  gathered  a  church, 
but  they  were  so  severely  persecuted  that 
most  of  them  emigrated  to  this  country  and 
established  a  Swedish  colony  in  Minnesota. 
A  successor  was  found  in  Rev.  Andreas 
Wiberg,  who  had  been  a  Lutheran  minister. 
In  1 86 1  Captain  Schroeder  returned  to 
Sweden  and  built  the  first  Baptist  meeting- 
house at  Gothenburg.  Persecutions  were 
still  experienced  for  some  time,  but  they 
gradually  ceased.  The  churches  multiplied 
with  exceeding  rapidity,  until  in  1900  there 
were  566  churches  and  a  total  membership 
of  41,000.  The  churches  are  organized  in 
nineteen  associations.    The  Bethel  Seminary 


Baptist  Missions  233 

was  founded  at  Stockholm  in  1886  for  the 
instruction  of  their  ministers,  and  has  about 
forty  students  annually.  The  Swedish  Bap- 
tist Mission,  formed  in  1889,  has  mission- 
aries in  Spain,  China  and  on  the  Congo, 
besides  aiding  evangelists  in  Finland  and 
Russia.  The  Baptist  Home  Mission,  also 
founded  in  1889,  aids  over  fifty  workers  on 
the  home  field. 

From  Sweden  the  Baptists  extended  into 
Norway  and  Finland,  the  first  church  being 
constituted  in  Norway  in  i860,  while  in 
Finland  five  churches  were  formed  in  1873 
as  the  beginning  of  the  work  there.  There 
are  now  2,700  members  in  the  former  coun- 
try and  2, 100  in  the  latter.  The  missionary 
spirit  of  the  Swedish  churches  has  been 
quite  as  remarkable  as  that  of  the  German. 

According  to  the  best  statistics  obtainable, 
which  are  by  no  means  complete,  there  are 
now  in  the  entire  world  58,000  Baptist 
churches,  with  5,454,700  members.  Add- 
ing the  numbers  of  those  already  mentioned 


234  The  Baptists 

sects  that  are  essentially  Baptist,  the  grand 
total  is  very  nearly  six  millions,  of  whom 
four-fifths  are  found  on  the  American  con- 
tinent. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

OF  EASILY   ACCESSIBLE  SOURCES 

Armitage,  a  History  of  the  Baptists.  New  York, 
1887. 

Newman,  A  History  of  the  Baptist  Churches  in  the 
United  States,  Vol.  II  in  the  American  Church  His- 
tory Series.     New  York,  1894. 

BuRRAGE,  A  History  of  the  Baptists  in  New  England. 
Philadelphia,  1894. 

Vedder,  a  History  of  the  Baptists  in  the  Middle  States, 
Philadelphia,  1898. 

Smith,  A  History  of  the  Baptists  in  the  Western  States. 
Philadelphia,  1900. 

Riley,  A  History  of  the  Baptists  in  the  Southern 
States.     Philadelphia,  1899. 

Guild,  Chaplain  Smith  and  the  Baptists.  Philadelphia, 
1885. 

JUDSON,  Life  of  Adoniram  Judson.     New  York,  1883. 

Smith,  Life  of  William  Carey.     London,  1887. 

CuLROSS,  Hansard  Knollys.     London,  1895. 

Davies,  Vavasour  Powell.     London,  1896. 

Lofton,  English  Baptist  Reformation.    Louisville,  1889. 

Burr  AGE,  The  Anabaptists  of  Switzerland.  Philadel- 
phia, 1883. 

Heath,  The  Anabaptists.     London,  1893. 

235 


236  The  Baptists 

Baptist  Home  Missions  in  America,  Jubilee  Volume. 
New  York,  1882. 

Newman,  A  Century  of  Baptist  Achievement.  Phila- 
delphia, 1 90 1. 

Merriam,  a  History  of  American  Baptist  Missions. 
Philadelphia,  1902. 

Wright,  Missionary  Work  of  the  Southern  Baptist 
Convention.     Philadelphia,  1902. 

Brown,  Life  of  John  Bunyan.     London,  1885. 

Richardson,  Memoirs  of  Alexander  Campbell.  St. 
Louis,  1886. 

Strauss,  Life  of  Roger  Williams.     New  York,  1894. 

Wood,  History  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Boston. 
Philadelphia,  1901. 

Keen,  History  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Philadel- 
phia.    Philadelphia,  1901. 

Ford,  New  England's  Struggles  for  Religious  Liberty. 
Philadelphia,  1896. 

James,  Documentary  History  of  the  Struggle  for  Relig- 
ious Liberty  in  Virginia.     Lynchburg,  Va.,  1900. 


Index 


Adventists,  Second,  origin  of,  1 88-1 90;  practice  immer- 
sion, 207. 

Affusion,  among  Mennonites,  25  ;  among  Anabaptists, 
38,  54,  55  ;  among  General  Baptists,  71. 

Albigenses,  64. 

Alexander  III  (Pope),  58. 

American  Board  of  Commissioners,  163. 

Bible  Society,  222;  policy  towards  Baptists, 

223. 
Sunday  School  Union,  175. 
Tract  Society,  175. 

Amsterdam,  English  Separatists  in,  68. 

Anabaptists,  in  England,  28-30 ;  on  the  Continent,  30- 
55;  origin  of,  31 ;  become  separate  party,  33,  37; 
baptism  among,  38 ;  how  the  name  arose,  ib. ; 
leaders  destroyed,  41 ;  in  Bern,  42;  origin  in  Ger- 
many, 44,  45  ;  and  Thomas  Miinzer,  44 ;  successors 
of  the  Waldenses,  45  ;  in  Moravia,  46,  47  ;  in  South 
Germany,  48,  49 ;  in  Strasburg,  50. 

Anti-Masonic  craze,  187. 

Apostolic  succession,  21. 

Arminius  and  the  Baptists,  68  sq.,  I02 ;  Arminian  churches, 

151.  154- 

Arnold  of  Brescia,  63. 

Associations,  among  English  Baptists,  112  sq.,  120;  the 
Philadelphia,  151  sq.,  197;  missionary  work  of, 
153  sq. ;  the  Ketockton,  156;  the  Charleston,  157. 

Augsburg,  Anabaptists  in,  48,  49. 


238 


Index 


Awakening,  the  Great,  144,  155. 
Bampfield,  Francis,  121. 

Baptists,  origin  of,  8,  18,  19;  cardinal  principle  of,  8; 
founded  upon  the  Scriptures,  9 ;  why  they  immerse, 
12;  why  "  close  "  communionists,  14;  their  polity, 
15;  contest  for  religious  liberty,  17,  82  sq.,  138, 
161 ;  origin  of  the  name,  19,  80;  antiquity  of,  20, 
21;  "New"  of  Bern,  42;  among  Cromwell's 
Triers,  86  ;  under  the  Protectorate,  83  sq.,  87  ;  effect 
of  Act  of  Toleration  on,  95  ;  character  and  customs, 
97;  comparative  progress,  100 ;  bitter  controversies 
among,  102;  beginning  of  organization,  ri2;  in 
Scotland,  118;  in  Ireland,  119;  in  the  Cisnadas, 
130  sq. ;  in  Australasia,  133;  in  South  Africa  and 
Jamaica,  134;  in  Massachusetts,  135;  growth  after 
the  Great  Awakening,  156;  suffer  from  the  Revolu- 
tion, 158;  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  160,  161; 
begin  missions,  162;  increase  in  nineteenth  century, 
177;  relation  to  Disciples,  184,  185;  and  the 
Masons,  187;  and  Second  Adventists,  188  sq. ;  and 
the  slavery  question,  190  sq. ;  effect  of  civil  war  on, 
195  ;  advance  in  missions,  200 ;  statistics  about,  100, 
118,  177,  199,  203,  226,  228,  229,  232.  See  also 
affusion,  communion,  immersion.  Missions. 
Freewill,  205. 

General,  origin,  70;  earliest  English  churches 
of,  72;  adopt  immersion,  77  ;  General  As- 
sembly of,  103,  114;  Socinian  ideas  among, 
104;  New  Connection  of,  no;  unite  with 
English  Particular  Baptists,  1 16. 
Old  School  or  "  Hard  Shell,"  205. 
Particular,  origin  of,  73;  restore  practice  of  im- 
mersion, 74-78;  hyper-Calvinism  among, 
105,   106;    begin    foreign    missions,    no; 
union  with  General  Baptists,  116. 
Six  Principle  (English)  120;  (American)  204. 
Seventh-Day  (English)  121 ;  (American)  205. 
Two-seed-in-the-Spirit,  206. 
United,  157. 


Index  239 


Baptist  Churches,  Swansea,  142;  Boston,  142,  143;  in 
Maine,  144,  156;  Charleston,  144;  New  York, 
146,  147;  in  Connecticut,  145,  146;  in  New  Jersey, 
149 ;  Plailadelphia  and  vicinity,  149  sq. ;  in  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  146. 

Basel,  48. 

Batten,  John,  75. 

Beddome,  Benjamin,  125. 

Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  62. 

Blacklock,  75. 

Blaurock,  George,  41. 

Blount,  Richard,  75,  76. 

Boardman,  George  Dana,  216. 

Bockhold,  John,  52. 

Bogomils,  64. 

Booth,  Abraham,  126. 

Boucher,  Joan,  29. 

Bradford,  William,  68. 

Brewster,  William,  68. 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  founded,  212;  policy 
toward  Baptists,  213,  223. 

Bunyan,  John,  90  sq. 

Butler,  Joseph,  107. 

Calvinistic  churches  in  America,  151,  155,  205. 

Campbell,  Alexander,  182  sq. 

Carey,  William,  1 10  sq.,  208  sq. 

Carson,  Alexander,  127. 

Charles  I,  93,  94. 

Charles  II,  and  the  Restoration,  87. 

Christ,  supremacy  of,  8;  teaching  regarding  religion, 
12;  regarding  the  church,  20. 

Christadelphians,  and  immersion,  207. 

Church,  a  Scriptural,  10,  35  ;  subverted  by  infant  bap- 
tism, II;  alters  immersion  to  affusion,  13;  in  the 
Apostolic  period,  15  ;  the  "  universal,"  16  ;  and  the 
State,  16,  17,  35-37,  63,  86,  13S,  161 ;  teaching  of 
Christ  about,  20. 

Clarke,  John,  141,  142. 

Clark,  Francis  E.,  20I. 


240  Index 


Communion,  Scriptural  teaching  on,  14 ;  Faustus  Socinus 

on,  14;  "open,"  15,81;  "close,"  14,79,81. 
Confessions,  the  Philadelphia,  9,  154;  of  the  Assembly, 

9,  96;  the  Westminster,  9,  96;  the  Schleitheim,  43; 

of  1644,  75,  78,  83,  112;  of  Smyth  and  his  follow- 
ers, 82. 
Congregationalists,    and    foreign    missions,    163;    and 

home  missions,  173. 
Connecticut,  colony  of,  145. 
Conscience,  liberty  of,  16,  17  ;  first  recognized  in  Rhode 

Island,    138;    assured   in    Massachusetts,   143;    in 

Virginia,   160;  generally  adopted  in  America,  160, 

161. 
Convention,    General,  organized,  166;   disrupted,  193; 

its  European  missions,  220 ;  Southern  Baptist,  193, 

227  ;  Saratoga  Bible,  225. 
"Councils"  among  Baptists,  114. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  83-86. 
Denck,  John,  48,  49. 
Disciples   of  Christ,  origin  of,  183;   adopt  doctrine  of 

Sandeman,  184;  opposed  by  Baptists,  185. 
Discipline  in  Baptist  churches,  99. 
Dissenters,  see  Nonconformists. 
Dodge,  Jeremiah,  148. 
Donatists,  65. 
Dunkards,  206. 
Dunster,  Henry,  143. 
Education,    Baptist   services    to,    in    England,    132;   in 

Canada,    132;    Hopewell   Academy,    197;    Brown 

University  and  other  schools,  198. 
Epworth  League,  203. 
Eyres,  Nicholas,  147. 
Faber,  34. 
Falk,  Jacob,  41. 
Fawcett,  John,  125. 
Featly,  Daniel,  76. 
Feeks,  Robert,  147, 
Foster,  John,  126, 
Fox,  George,  26,  44,  97,  99. 


Index  241 

Fox  and  the  "  Book  of  Martyrs,"  29. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  57. 

Friends,  26,  34,  82,  97,  99. 

Fuller,  Andrew,  iii. 

Gainsborough,  66-68. 

Gano,  John,  148. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  190. 

Gill,  John,  122. 

Goold,  Thomas,  142,  143. 

Grebel,  Conrad,  41. 

Guiness,  Grattan,  226. 

Haldane  Brothers,  119. 

Harrison,  Thomas,  84. 

Hatzer,  Ludwig,  41. 

Helwys,  Thomas,  69,  71. 

Henry  VIII,  28. 

Henricians,  62. 

Henry  of  Lausanne,  62. 

Holmes,  Obadiah,  142. 

Hofmann,  Melchoir,  50,  51. 

Holliman,  Ezekiel,  139,  141. 

Hiibmaier,  Balthazar,  46,  47. 

Immersion,  not  practiced  by  Baptists  only,  7 ;  the  only 
baptism,  12,  19;  in  the  Greek  Church,  13;  changed 
at  discretion  of  the  Church,  13;  among  the  Ana- 
baptists, 38;  in  Bern,  42;  in  Augsburg,  49;  in 
Poland,  51;  restored  in  England,  74-77;  contro- 
versies regarding,  78 ;  always  practiced  in  America, 
140;  practiced  by  non-Baptists,  207. 

Infant  baptism,  not  Scriptural,  10,  34 ;  Zwingli  on,  34 ; 
necessary  to  a  State  Church,  37  ;  denied  by  Henry 
Dunster,  143. 

Ingolstadt,  46. 

Innocent  III  (Pope),  59. 

Ireland,  Baptists  of,  119. 

Jacob,  Henry,  73. 

James  II  and  his  policy,  92,  93. 

Jessey,  Henry,  74. 

Judaism,  contrasted  with  Christianity,  II. 


242  Index 


Judson,  Adoniram,  163  sq.,  222. 

Karens,  missions  among,  217, 

Keiss,  church  of,  118. 

Kiffin,  William,  74. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  77. 

Leipzig,  disputation  at,  32. 

Leyden,  English  Separates  at,  68;  CoUegiants  of,  75. 

Lichtenstein,  Princes  of,  47. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  192. 

Luther,  Martin,  32,  33. 

Maclaren,  Alexander,  129. 

McLean,  Archibald,  119. 

McMaster  University,  133, 

Mantz,  Felix,  41. 

Matthys,  Jan,  52. 

Menno  Simons,  24,  30. 

Mennonites,  origin  of,  24 ;  teaching  and  practice,  25 ; 
anticipate  the  Friends,  26 ;  their  spread,  27 ;  in 
England,  27 ;  called  Anabaptists,  28 ;  relations  to 
English  Baptists,  70,  71,  75,  76. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  suffers  from  the  Revolution, 
158;  missions,  173;  Epvi^orth  League,  202. 

Miller,  William,  188  sq. 

Missions,  European,  and  the  General  Convention,  220 ; 
in  France,  228;  in  Germany,  229  sq. ;  in  Russia, 
231;    in    Sweden,  232;   in    Norway  and  Finland, 

233- 
Missions,  Home,  conducted  by  General  Convention,  167  ; 

effect  of  Western  movement  on,  168-170;  societies 

organized,   172;  Southern  Baptists  withdraw,  194; 

among  Indians,  221. 
Missions,  Foreign,  begun  in  England,  no  sq.,  208  sq. ; 

in   India,   163,  209,  214;  among  Telugus,  218  sq. ; 

in    Assam,  220;    in  Africa,  225;   in    China,    217; 

statistics,  226. 
Montanists,  65. 
Moravia,  Anabaptists  in,  47. 
Morgan,  William,  186. 
Morton,  John,  69,  71. 


Index  243 

Miinster,  troubles  at,  52-54. 

Miinzer,  Thomas,  44,  50. 

New  Jersey,  colony  of,  146. 

"  New  Lights,"  157. 

Newport,  colony  of,  141. 

New  York,  colony  of,  145  sq. 

Nicolsburg,  47. 

Nilsson,  Frederick  O.,  232. 

Nonconformists,  persecuted  in  England,  87  sq. ;  tolerated 
by  James  II,  93;  Act  of  Toleration  for,  95. 

Nova  Scotia,  Baptists  of,  131. 

Oekolampadius,  34,  46. 

"Open"  communion,  ilS,  130. 

Oncken,  J.  G.,  229. 

Ontario,  Baptists  in,  131. 

Paulicians,  64. 

Peasants'  war,  50. 

Pennsylvania,  colony  of,  146. 

Persecutions,  of  Mennonites,  27;  of  Anabaptists,  31,  38, 
41;  denounced  by  Luther,  33;  in  Bern,  42;  in 
Westphalia,  53;  of  Waldenses,  59;  English  Pres- 
byterians and,  85  ;  after  Restoration,  88 ;  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, 137,  142,  143;  in  Maine,  144;  in  Con- 
necticut, 145;  in  New  York,  146;  in  Virginia,  158. 

Peter  of  Bruys,  61,  63. 
the  Venerable,  61. 

Petrobrusians,  61,  62. 

"Pilgrims'  Progress,"  90,  91. 

of  Plymouth,  68. 
Polygamy,  practiced  at  Miinster,  53. 

Presbyterians  (English)  persecuting  tendencies  of,  85 ; 
Sociuianism    among,    104;    (American)    missions, 

173- 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  missions  of,  173. 
Providence,  colony  of,  138. 
Quebec,  Baptists  in,  131. 
Quakers,  see  Friends. 
Regensburg,  46. 
Revivals  and  evangelists,  178,  179. 


244  Index 


Revolution,  the  American,  144,  158,  169,  197. 

Rhodes,  William,  147. 

Rice,  Luther,  163  sq. 

Riemann,  Henry,  41. 

Rippon,  John,  122. 

River  Brethren,  206. 

Robinson,  Robert,  125. 

Roman  Catholics,  persecuted,  89 ;  favored  by  James  II, 

93- 

Ryland,  John,  124. 

Salem,  colony  of,  136. 

Sandeman,  Robert,  184. 

Schroeder,  Gustaf  W.,  232. 

Scott,  Walter,  182. 

Scotland,  Baptists  in,  118. 

Scriptures,  authority  of,  9,  10 ;  Luther  and  Zwingli  on, 
32;  translations  by  Carey,  211  sq. ;  controversies 
about  versions  of,  213,  223  sq. 

Scrooby,  66,  67. 

Separatists  (English),  19,  66,  67,  73,  135,  141. 

"Separates"  (American),  157,  169. 

Smyth,  John,  67-71,  82. 

Social  Brethren,  207. 

Societies,  Baptist,  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union, 
194;  American  Baptist  Home  Mission,  172;  Ameri- 
can Baptist  Publication,  176;  American  Bible 
Union,  224;  American  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
223;  Baptist  Union  (English),  115;  (German), 
230 ;  Bible  Translation,  213;  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention, 193,  227  ;  Baptist  Young  People's  Union  of 
America,  202.     See  also  Associations,  Convention. 

Southwark,  church  in,  73. 

Spilsbury,  John,  73,  74,  76. 

Spurgeon,  Charles  Haddon,  128. 

State,  relations  to  the  Church,  17,  35-37,  63,  86,  138, 
161. 

Steele,  Miss  Anne,  124. 

Stone,  Barton,  182. 

Stennetts,  family  of,  123. 


Index  245 

Strasburg,  Anabaptists  in,  50,  5 1. 

Stuyvesant,  Peter,  146. 

Sunday-schools,  origin  and  growth  of,  174,  176. 

Taylor,  Dan,  102,  109,  no. 

Telugus,  mission  to,  218  sq. 

Thomas,  John,  208. 

Toleration,  in  Holland,  27 ;  idea  of,  82 ;  under  James 

II,  92;  Act  of  1689,  95,  100,  118.     See  also  Con- 
science, liberty  of. 
Triers,  Cromwell's,  86. 
Twelve  articles  of  the  peasants,  50. 
Unitarians,  English,  85,  104. 
Vermont,  Baptists  of,  131. 
Vienna,  47. 
Waldshut,  46. 
Waldo,  Peter,  55-59. 
"Waldenses,  origin  of,  55;  persecutions  of,  59;  doctrine 

and  practice,  60. 
Wesley,  John,  and  his  great  revival,  108  sq. 
Whitefield,  George,  155,  169. 
Wiberg,  Andreas,  232. 
Wickenden,  William,  146. 
Wightman,  Edward,  burned,  29. 

Valentine,  147. 
William  of  Orange,  94. 
Williams,  Roger,  135- 140. 
Williams  College,  163. 
Winnebrennerians,  206. 
Young  People's  movement,  200-202. 
Zurich,  32,  41,47;  first  disputation  at,  33;  disputation 

with  Anabaptists  at,  40. 
Zwickau,  43. 
Zwingli,  on  Scripture,  32 ;  at  first  Zurich  disputation,  34  ; 

on  infant  baptism,  34;  on  Church  and  State,  35-37  ; 

dispute   with    Anabaptists,  40;    controversy   with 

Hubmaier,  46. 


The  Story  of  the  Churches 

THE 
PRESBYTERIANS 

BY 

Dr.  Charles.  S.  Thompson,  D.D. 

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Presbyterian  Church  of  the  United 

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RECOLLECTIONS 
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THE  TIMES  AND 
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